Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta has reacted to projections by the International Monetary Fund(IMF) that Ghana’s public debt could escalate to unsustainable levels, saying that saving the lives of Ghanaians is more important than striving to meet statistical impositions on the country.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Etornam Sey on Monday October 26, 2020, Mr Ofori-Atta stressed that Government was satisfied that notwithstanding the rising debt, the money is being spent to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and ensure that Ghanaians are safe.
He explained that the Government had to put the life of Ghanaians ahead of meeting debt level targets, adding that Ghana is within the projections of the IMF but for expenditure on cleaning the banking sector and on energy.
He said that “the IMF is expecting developed countries to have 125% debt to GDP ratio . Countries like ours is doing about 65%. [ So] When you discount what was spent on the financial service and on the energy sector, that brings it back[ to the expected level of the IMF for developing countries],” he pointed out.
He insisted that Government chose saving lives of Ghanaians over sticking to statistical limitations on debt levels put forward by the IMF.
“I guess the question for any nation at this pandemic time is, what you put forward first?
The lives of the people who then become productive or you stick to some statistical numbers as an issue from stopping you from saving lives? I think we have chosen the latter,” he said.
The NPP Government has been criticised for borrowing ‘excessively’. Critics argue that the NPP, while in opposition, chastised the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government for borrowing instead of generating funds locally, but is now practising what it preached against.
