Adnan Adams Mohammed
The Minority Caucus in Ghana’s Parliament has raised concerns over the government’s recent borrowing of GH¢7 billion from the treasury bills market to cover expenses outside its budgetary allocations.
According to the Minority, this practice of extending expenditure beyond the budget for political purposes is exacerbating the depreciation of the cedi against the dollar.
Cedi depreciation
They abhor the government’s management of the Ghanaian cedi, warning that it could jeopardise the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme by year-end.
“This [IMF] programme is likely to derail by the end of this year, and recovery could take a significant amount of time”, Dr Ato Forson, Minority Leader in Parliament noted in an interview last week. Adding that, “I have strong convictions” that the programme will not stay the course.
“Let’s observe how it unfolds,” he emphasised, putting it all down to fiscal policies.
He said the government was “on course” but pointed out: “As you know, the review dates back”.
“So, the next review is going to use the data as of December last year. So, the programme indicators to check whether the programme is performing or not is going to use data six months before the time of review. So, obviously, six months before, it was good. But I can tell you that based on the data and the way they are conducting the affairs of the policy going forward, there is going to be a complete commotion,” he said.
Dr. Forson, criticised the government’s fiscal strategies, indicating that efforts to stabilise the national currency are inadequate and may pose risks to the economy.
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