The Member of Parliament for Ejisu and Deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah has reiterated claims by government that external factors disrupted Ghana’s buoyant economy created by the governing New Patriotic Party.

Mr. Kumah said the external disruptive factors worsened the debt crisis of the country, which compelled the Minister of Finance to announce a debt restructuring initiative dubbed Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.

Speaking to Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Citi TV, the Deputy Finance Minister said Ghana’s debt situation deteriorated with some global crises including the outbreak of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war

“We got here through very difficult global circumstances. The economy was doing well before Covid-19 struck and when Covid came, it did not only hit Ghana, it hit the entire world and there were disruptions in supply chains, the introduction of lockdowns, and things generally became expensive, and even now that we are out of the pandemic, one of the symptoms of Covid-19 in every country is high inflation rates. In Ghana, for example, we have seen how inflation levels have shot up from 12 percent to 40.4 percent in October.

“Unfortunately, we were further hit in 2022 by the needless war in Russia and Ukraine which affected energy and that has led to increases in the prices of fuel at the pumps. The trotro driver has to pay more and translated that into increases in fares for passengers and for everyone.”

Mr. Kumah further said the widely opposed debt exchange program is only one of the measures adopted by the Government to restructure the country’s debt and nurse the economy back to health.

“Any objective observer will tell you that, globally, we are heading toward a recession and that means further difficult situations for everyone, so we have to do something and that is why Ghana is making processes to get a program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and one of the conditions to meet the Fund’s program is debt sustainability.”