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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it is baffled by the claims of President Mahama that he is laying the foundation for sound economic take off and high growth from 2017.

Describing the claim as deceptive in a press statement issued and signed by its Director of Communications, Nana Akomea yesterday, NPP said President Mahama’s government inherited economic growth rate of 9.1% at end 2008. President Mahama took over in 2012. In that year the growth rate declined to 9.3%.

In 2015 the growth rate has further declined to 4%.So what level of growth is President Mahama laying the foundation for, is it to take us to the growth we had already achieved in 2008 or the growth we achieved in 2011, he asked.

“We note that it is not only the growth of the economy that has retrogressed under President Mahama. Inflation was at single digit levels when President Mahama took over. Today it is over 16%.The cedi had depreciated 4% in 2011 and GHc1.80p bought one dollar.

“President Mahama’s policies saw the cedi becoming the worst depreciated currency in the world (30%) in 2014. Today Ghanaians need GHc4 to buy one dollar.

“The fiscal deficit was 4% of GDP at end 2011. President Mahama in his first year 2012 took the deficit to a record 12%. Today, even under IMF supervision and “policy credibility”, the deficit is in excess of 7%.

Today, growth rates in agriculture and industry are much worse than when President Mahama took over in 2012”, he said, adding: “How do you take over an economy, make it worse and claim you have made it worse in order to make it better?

How do you take over a bus travelling at 80 kilometres an hour, reduce the speed to 30 kilometres an hour and boast that the reduced speed is a preparation for a higher speed?

According to NPP, President Mahama claims his government’s roads construction, for example, would make food cheaper and increase cocoa output.

“But we see food prices increasingly not affordable. As for cocoa, President Mahama inherited production at one million tons in 2010/2011 season. Today cocoa production is 800,000 tons under his watch.

“We could afford Eurobond rates when President Mahama took over in 2012. Today under his presidency, we simply cannot afford the rates offered.

“Even on this 2017 economic take off claim”, Nana Akomea continues, “President Mahama had been making the same claim year in year out since 2012, but the economic plight of Ghanaians keeps worsening.

“In his New Year message 2013, he told Ghanaians of better times ahead. In 2014 he told us the economy will turn around in 2014. In 2015, he told us of better days ahead and in 2016, he has told us of a stable economy, mid 2016, he is telling Ghanaians of a take off in 2017”

According to him, President Mahama’s government has agreed with the IMF on a programme of labour redundancies from 2017.

“The message this sends to Ghanaian workers is vote for President Mahama this year and get sacked next year. It is sad that President Mahama shrinks the Ghanaian economy from 14% growth to 4% and still claims he is changing lives and transforming Ghana. The propaganda must stop,” he concluded.