Sammi Awuku, MP for Akuapem North, argued that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government outperformed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in meeting ECOWAS Convergence Criteria, despite global economic challenges.
While both parties struggled with inflation and budget deficits, he said the then Akufo-Addo-led government demonstrated fiscal discipline and increased foreign reserves.
Mr Awuku argued in parliament that the NPP left a stronger economy than the NDC, despite the global economic turmoil.
“Under these benchmarks, neither the National Democratic Congress (NDC) nor the New Patriotic Party (NPP) met the targets for budget deficit or inflation.”
“According to the reports, in 2016, the NDC recorded a 9.0% budget deficit on a cash basis and a 15.4% inflation rate, while in 2024, the NPP reported a 5.2% deficit on a cash basis 7.9% on a commitment basis and an inflation rate of 23.8%.
“Both administrations achieved zero central bank financing of the budget deficit, thus adhering to the 10% target for that indicator. Additionally, while the NDC’s gross external reserves covered only 2.8 months of imports about $6.1 billion, the NPP surpassed the requirement by securing 4.0 months of import cover approximately $8.98 billion.” He said.
Adding that, "Based on this analysis, NPP scored 3 out of 6 (50%) compared to NDC’s 2 out of 6 (33.3%). Therefore, upon the adverse impacts of the global economic turmoil in 2020 (Covid-19 pandemic) and 2022 (Russian-Ukrainian war), NPP still left a stronger economy in 2024 than what was left by NDC in 2016.”
Mr Awuku further said the NPP met more key microeconomic targets, including gross external reserves and public debt-to-GDP ratio, despite failing to achieve targets on exchange rate stability.
