State of the Nations Address<\/strong><\/a><\/span> which he made in Parliament about two weeks ago.<\/p>\nThe President\u00a0touched on measures government has put in place to relieve Ghanaians from the economic hardship.<\/p>\n
Addressing the press conference on Monday, Minority Leader in\u00a0Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu noted that though in 2014 the average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the West Africa monetary zone was provisionally stated at 6.2 percent Ghana\u2019s GDP growth rate (oil included) was 4.2% and the non-oil sector grew at only 3.5%.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Ghana was the country that was pulling the average GDP growth rate in the West African monetory zone growth downwards,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr President that is the plain truth but you did not tell Ghanaians,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Minority Leader\u00a0further stated that at the close of 2013, Ghana was the only country out of the six West African monetary zone countries that had failed to attain even one of the ten convergent criteria for the second year in secession adding that \u201cIn 2014, Ghana scored zero out of the ten convergence criteria involving the four primary and six secondary criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr President this abysmal performance has not been seen in 22 years in Ghana. \u00a0This is the true state of Ghana\u2019s economy. \u00a0The state of the economy is in such shambolic state that on Thursday March 12, 2015, the Minister of Finance is presenting to Parliament a reviewed budget for 2015. Note that this is not a supplementary budget\u2026.this means that we are throwing aside the 2015 budget approved in December 2014 only two months after the approval.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu also indicated that it is possible that Ghana’s could slip back\u00a0into the highly indebted poor (HIPC) country status.<\/p>\n
\u201cGhana is on a super highway unsustainable debt levels that pushed us to HIPC. At this rate the international rating agencies may soon classify Ghana as a country with high risk of debt distress and thus compromise our ability to raise further financing from the international capital market and worst still incapacitate the country from servicing and paying our debts,\u201d he added<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n