{"id":148777,"date":"2015-09-04T05:44:42","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T05:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=148777"},"modified":"2015-09-04T06:05:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T06:05:07","slug":"imfs-diplomacy-worsening-ghanas-plight-akoto-osei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=148777","title":{"rendered":"IMF\u2019s \u2018diplomacy\u2019 worsening Ghana&#8217;s plight \u2013 Akoto Osei"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Dr Anthony Akoti Osei has expressed concerns over what he described as the International Monetary Fund\u2019s (IMF) \u201cdiplomacy,\u201d in analysing Ghana\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the IMF has not painted the real picture about the true state of the economy and has resorted to only using \u201cdiplomatic language\u201d while the economy continues to suffer.<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;LQRAEggdbHn5M9qzjzFkEmrK7UwLMnNS&#8221;]\u201cThe IMF language is very diplomatic. When they[IMF] \u00a0use statements like \u2018The Programme is broadly on course in a very hostile economic environment\u2019, all what they are telling you is that \u00a0things are not good but they will not clearly state that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Akoto Osei \u00a0believes their \u00a0actions have partly contributed to Ghana\u2019s current economic challenges.<\/p>\n<p>He made\u00a0these comments in an interview with <strong>Eyewitness News<\/strong> host Richard Sky, while sharing his thoughts on the Ministry of Finance\u2019s <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/2015\/09\/03\/ghana-to-review-downwards-oil-revenue-targets-again\/\" target=\"_blank\">decision to return<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>to Parliament to review oil revenue targets for the second time in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister Seth Terkper announced at a press conference on Thursday, that the revised estimate of petroleum benchmark revenue for 2015 <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/2015\/09\/03\/ghana-to-review-downwards-oil-revenue-targets-again\/\" target=\"_blank\">may not be achieved<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going into the 2016 budget, I said in my introduction that the hearings are ongoing and so we will take the oil price trend into account to determine two things, thus whether we will go back to cabinet and parliament to revise the last quarter figures or we will wait and rather look at the price trends and factor whatever new price into the 2016\u00a0 budget,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Parliament debate <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr. Osei, on <strong>Eyewitness News<\/strong>, emphasized the need for Parliament to \u201cbe recalled\u201d to debate on whether to approve the Ministry\u2019s \u00a0proposal or not.<\/p>\n<p>He also indicated that the House will discuss other economic challenges facing the country.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Osei further explained that the \u201cdebate over Ghana\u2019s economic challenges is very relevant especially when the country is moving into an election year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is currently an IMF programme which needs to be looked at. It has an impact on Ghanaians; removal of subsidies, adjustment of petroleum prices and so forth. These have direct impacts on us and we need to properly debate them to see which way is best for Ghana.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Marian Efe Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Dr Anthony Akoti Osei has expressed concerns over what he described as the International Monetary Fund\u2019s (IMF) \u201cdiplomacy,\u201d in analysing Ghana\u2019s economy. According to him, the IMF has not painted the real picture about the true state of the economy and has resorted to only using \u201cdiplomatic language\u201d while the economy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":28422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[43,38,21,4],"class_list":["post-148777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-foresight-medical-center","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-psychiatric","tag-st-augustines-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}