Claims by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that they performed better in terms of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures is not true, Minister of Transport Fiifi Kwetey has suggested.
He indicated at a press conference organised by the NDC’s Setting The Records Straight forum at the party’s headquarters in Accra on Thursday September 22 that the NPP presided over an average real GDP growth of 5.66% within the eight years of the erstwhile President John Agyekum Kufour administration.
The GDP is one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country’s economy. It represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period. The growth rate is calculated percentagewise year after year.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South explained that in “2001 (4.2%), 2002 (4.5%), 2003 (5.2%), 2004 (5.6%), 2005(5.9%), 2006 (6.4%), 2007(4.3%) and 2008 (9.1%). This makes an average of 5.6% within that period”.
He argued that the NDC on the other hand oversaw an “average non-oil GDP rate between 2009 to 2015 of 6.3% real growth” which to him was above that of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo party.
He indicated that if one decides to add “the projected 4.1% growth projected for 2016, the average will still be 6.0% which is higher than that of the NPP”.
According to him, the NDC decided to compute the non-oil GDP figures in order to prove that even without oil, the NPP came nowhere near the NDC’s economic achievements.
Mr Kwetey gave details of the NDC’s GDP record as follows: “2009 (7.6%), 2010 (8.2%), 2011 (8.6%), 2012 (6.6%), 2013 (6.9%), 2014(4.1%), 2015(4.1%).”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
