Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said despite the domestic and global crisis between 2020 and 2022, Ghana’s economy still performed better under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government than it did in the erstwhile Mahama administration.
He cited performance in the agriculture and industry sectors, the GDP, exchange rate among others as evidence of the current administration’s superior economic performance.
Dr Bawunia made the remarks at a lecture to present his vision to the people of Ghana.
On GDP growth the Vice President said between 2013 and 2016, Ghana’s GDP averaged 3.9% but averaged 5.3% between 2017 and 2020 and declined to 4.9% between 2017 and 2022.
“What is remarkable about this performance is that notwithstanding the global economic crisis from COVI-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, economic growth under our government is still stronger on average than under the 2013- 2016 era preceding our coming into office,” Dr Bawumia stated.
On agriculture, the NPP flagbearer said the sector’s GDP growth had increased from an average of 2.9% between 2013 and 2016 to an average of 6% between 2017 and 2022.
He said the progress made in the agricultural sector culminated in a 45% decline in rice import from 805,000MT to 440,000MT between 2021 and 2023.
Dr Bawumia further stated that industrial GDP growth which averaged 3.3% between 2013 and 2016 increased to an average of 7.5% between 2017 and 2020 and declined to 5% between 2017 and 2022.
On the performance of the Cedi, the NPP marksman lauded the modest gains chalked by the government since 2017.
“Between 2013 and 2016 the cedi depreciated by an average of 17.7%. Between 2017 and 2020 there was a significant decline in the cedi depreciation to an average of 7.5%. The average cedi depreciation further declined to 6.8% between 2017 and 2021. However, following the 30% depreciation of the cedi in 2022, the average cedi depreciation between 2017 and 2022 is 10.75%”. The Vice President said.
Source: universalnewsgh.com