A Chartered Economist has called for an unqualified apology from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the controversy it has sparked regarding the level of Ghana’s public debt stock.
The Bretton Woods institution through Sanjeev Gupta, the Deputy Director of IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, disputed Bank of Ghana’s figure regarding the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, stressing at a press conference ahead of the Annual Meetings that it is 71 per cent instead of 60 per cent.
“First of all, the debt-to-GDP ratio in Ghana is 71 percent, not 60 percent so it is much higher than you mentioned,” Mr Gupta told a journalist last week.
But IMF explained on its website that the figure is a projection into 2015 and not the current one of 56 per cent.
“The best thing they need to do is to apologise to the people of Ghana,” Dr John Gatsi said on TV3’s Midday Live on Monday, October 13.
The University of Cape Coast Lecturer even raised doubts about the credibility of the Washington-based institution regarding some of its projections, saying some of the figures are not a true reflection of the current state of affairs.
He said the economy is not worsening as predicted by IMF.
“It is repositioning to become more stable.”
According to the financial expert, those are the projections some Ghanaian agencies including the Central Bank are making.
“IMF also needs to listen to our professionals. They cannot hold on to their projections,” Dr Gatsi told TV3’s Kweku Temeng.
Source: GhanaWeb
