The Ministry of Finance has described as false and misleading reports that it shared different macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Fact-Check Ghana, a subsidiary of the Media Foundation for West Africa, reported that the government shared different sets of macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to the fact-checking organization, the disparities were in the figures of GDP Deficit, Primary Balance, Current Account Balance, and Gross International Reserves figures.
Fact-Check Ghana added that the different sets of data were presented because of information coming from the IMF following the disbursement of a $1 billion credit facility upon a request for financial support to the government amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But the Ministry in a release stated that the claims from Fact-Check Ghana are inaccurate and completely misleading.
“Our attention has been drawn to a publication by fact-checkghana.com of the Media Foundation for West Africa suggesting that Government has shared different macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We wish to state that this assertion is false and misleading.
“We urge the public to seek clarification on matters they may have difficulty with and we would be happy to help resolve any misunderstanding. Publishing such wrong claims about the economy is not helpful.
“The first inaccuracy in the said publication was taking the January to September figures, that is the third quarter figures reported in our budget statements and comparing them with the full-year figures reported by the IMF.
“The fiscal deficit and primary balance reported in the publication are provisional end-September data quoted from the 2019 and 2020 Budget Statements. It was wrong to compare them with the full-year figures reported by the IMF and come to the erroneous conclusion that the Government had misrepresented information on the economy.
“Here is the data: for the first three quarters of 2018 and 2019, the provisional fiscal deficit reported were 3.0% of GDP (2019 Budget Statement) and 4.5% of GDP (2020 Budget Statement), respectively while the primary balances were 0.5% of GDP (2019 Budget Statement) and -0.3% of GDP (2020 Budget Statement) respectively.
“However, the full-year fiscal outturn published on the Ministry of Finance website (www.mofep.gov.gh) indicates that the fiscal deficit was 3.9% of GDP for 2018 (Jan-Dec) and 4.8% of GDP for 2019 (Jan-Dec) while the primary balance recorded a surplus of 1.5% of GDP and 0.9% of GDP in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
“Contrary to the claims in the publication, there is consistency between full-year fiscal performance indicators (overall fiscal balance and primary balance) reported by the Ministry of Finance and that reported by the IMF, even though both of them independently estimate their GDP projections based on independent assumptions. For the avoidance of doubt, Table 1 below depicts the level of consistency in the fiscal data as reported by both the MoF and IMF.”
Click the link below to read the full statement
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
