A renowned economist, Kwame Pianim, has accused former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of double standards.
He said this in defence to allegations made by Dr. Bawumia that the exchange rate and inflation figures released by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) were not credible.
Some economists and think tanks have also backed Dr. Bawumia’s analysis that the released data are unrealistic.
The former running mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in a statement, indicated that “at the end of December 2013, the cedi was GHC2.2 per US dollar,” adding that “the cedi is averaging some GHC 3.8 on the interbank and forex bureau markets and that this represents a depreciation of over 40%.”
Dr. Bawumia argued that his checks with several banks on the real forex numbers did not tally with figures from the Bank of Ghana.
But Pianim questioned how the same professionals who worked under Dr. Bawumia when he was deputy governor could be accused of manipulating figures and data.
“Dr. Bawumia was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana; he knows how statistics in the Bank of Ghana are put together, what has changed at the Bank of Ghana and at the Ministry? The people who were working for him [previously], are they still there?” he asked.
On the issue of the alleged concocted inflation figures, Dr. Bawumia referred to the Makola market in Accra and other markets in Kumasi, Akatsi, Techiman, Cape Coast, Wa, Bunkpurugu and Bolga markets saying, “Ghanaians would laugh at any one who claims that the average prices of food and non-food items have only gone up by an average of only 1.5% this year, according to Ghana Statistical Service.”
However, Pianim has cautioned that the work of professionals in these institutions must be respected.
“Politicians like Dr. Bawumia and think tanks can raise the issue to say we have the feeling that, looking at certain things, maybe these figures may not reflect the realities on the ground. It is a hunch. The only people who have the numbers are these institutions…let’s give credibility to our numbers and our systems and our professionals,” he stressed.
The President’s economic advisor, Nii Moi Thompson has also discredited Dr. Bawumia’s analysis expressing shock at his “gratuitous attack on institutions whose data he used in the past and which he continues to use, indeed, in the case of the central bank, he helped generate those statistics.”
By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana