A Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng, has blamed the past NDC government for what he says is the failure of the economic assistance program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to address Ghana\u2019s economic challenges.<\/p>\n
According to him, the strategy adopted by the past government<\/a><\/strong><\/span> was not an appropriate means to ending the prevailing economic issues at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen in the recent past the growing gap between our income and expenditure, when it became too difficult to handle, we went to the IMF for support and for a long time we had hoped that this would bring us the required remedy, the evidence is there for all to see it didn\u2019t and this was because the strategy was not right,\u201d Kwaku Kwarteng opined.<\/p>\n Ghana\u2019s rising budget deficit, rising debt to GDP ratio as well as declining economic growth, prompted the past NDC government to seek external help from the IMF in 2015.<\/p>\n The government entered into an agreement for the Fund to support economic growth with a 918 million dollar extended credit facility.<\/p>\n The country is however yet to see a complete turnaround in its fortunes as debts continue to rise, inflation has started increasing after declining for sometime as well as budget deficit due to low income compared to rising public expenditure.<\/p>\n Though the deal is expected to end in April 2018, discussions of a possible extension<\/a><\/strong><\/span> have engaged the current government and the Fund.<\/p>\n