Former Deputy Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson


Former Deputy Finance Minister and Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Cassiel Ato Forson, has chided the Central Bank saying the supervisory body is practicing intellectual dishonesty.

The Central Bank, in its Economic and Financial Data for May 2020, stated Ghana’s projected nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2020 was GH¢ 398,048 billion.

But, according to Mr Forson, that is untrue as the official projected nominal GDP for the year is GH¢ 385,251 billion.

BoG is using December 2020 projected nominal GDP of GH¢ 398,048 billion instead of the official projected nominal GDP of GH¢ 385,251 billion which the government shared with the IMF in April 2020, he noted.

Mr Forson, accused the BoG of intentionally using a higher nominal GDP to create the false belief that Ghana’s nominal debt as a percentage to GDP is low.

This is intellectual dishonesty and dangerous not only to Ghanaians but to the investor community. This is dubious, a systematic and deliberate manipulation of data which as we know has been recently exposed by the IMF, he stated.

He, therefore, called on the BoG to, as a matter of urgency, come clean and rectify what is now an exposed plot to deceive Ghanaians and the investor community.