Claims gov’t has printed GHS22bn new money ‘false, baseless’ – John Kumah

The Finance Ministry has refuted claims that the Bank of Ghana has printed GHS22billion without parliamentary approval.

The Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson made the claim at a press conference after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta had delivered the Mid–Year Budget Review to Parliament on Monday, 25 July 2022.

Mr Forson said this information was hidden in the appendix of the budget statement the sector Minister presented to the Parliament on Monday, July 25, 2022.

He noted that no wonder inflation is galloping and Ghana’s reserve dwindling under the watch of the managers of the economy.

But Deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah, in an interaction with the Press today, Tuesday, 26 July 2022, described Mr Forson’s claim as false and baseless.

Mr Kumah told journalists “He (Ato Forson) made baseless claims that the Bank of Ghana has printed some GHS22 billion. First of all, the statement was false and it’s not true, there’s no foundation to that claim and we want Ghanaians to treat that with a pinch of salt.”

“First of all he accused the minister of finance that we have hidden the information in page 97 in appendix 2a of the mid-year budget. This document is a public document, it is given out there for anybody to read, so how did he pick this document, read page 91 and said that the information there has been hidden, what is the meaning of that”? Mr Kumah wondered.

He explained that “The law allows central government and the Bank of Ghana to operate on overdraft basis, it is within the laws of the country, and so, on the Bank of Ghana’s own balance sheet, they can give overdraft to government as a loan which can be repaid within a specified period and this is not the first time any government has done that. When he was deputy minister, the Bank of Ghana supported the ministry of finance and government of Ghana on the same arrangement within the Bank of Ghana Act, so what has changed that today we are told the new economics from NDC is that when Bank of Ghana gives overdraft to government of Ghana it is called printing of money, I’m surprised, this is not economics and they have to come again.”

“That shows their incompetence and lack of appreciation of the situation,” he added.