Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, has accused the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, of massaging data on the economy to conceal the true state of affairs.
He mentioned the governor’s pronouncements on the cedi depreciation, the debt stock and growth figures as instances where Dr Addison has waded into “propaganda” rather than staying neutral as required of a central bank governor.
He made the accusations Wednesday at a public lecture organised by pro-National Democratic Congress group, Coalition for Restoration (CFR).
“Recently when he (Dr Addison) met with the Chartered Institute of Bankers at their dinner, he said the foreign exchange market had stabilised and that we registered a depreciation by October of 4.6 per cent compared to the average of 17 per cent.
“But I thought that if you are bold enough to mention 4.6 per cent for October, then why go to average? Also go to October (2016) and you will see that we did a depreciation of 4.3 per cent, better than the 4.6 per cent,” he said.
“But worst of all, the cedi appreciated in value against the British pound by 13 per cent in October as against 11.2 per cent in October this year by the NPP. Against the euro, we did a depreciation of 4.2 per cent and they did 14.7 per cent depreciation.”
On the collapse of UT and Capital Banks in August, this year, Mr Adongo said Dr Addison had also made a definite statement of criminality against the directors and shareholders of one of the banks in the misuse of third party funds, leaving the other unmentioned.
“Unfortunately after he dissolved those banks, the next day, he was at the church of one of the chairman of one of those banks to celebrate. That is why he failed to tell them, having identified that there is criminality, as he did with the rest,” he said.
He explained that such a stance by a person like the governor was not good for the image of the economy in the eyes of the investor public.
Source : graphic.com.gh
