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The two leading political parties in the country, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), are battling over the growth of the Ghanaian economy under their respective governments. Whilst the NDC claims to have inherited a virtually broke economy from the NPP in 2009 when it assumed power, and prides itself as having achieved the best inflation mark of 8.5% in the nation�s history, the opposition party has disputed the claim. Last week, a propaganda group in the NDC, led by Deputy Minster of Finance and Economic Planning, Fiifi Fiave Kwetey, under the pretext of �setting the records straight�, touted the reduction of inflation from 18.1% as it inherited from the NPP to 8.5% as the Mills administration�s topmost achievement, in spite of claims of increasing high cost of living. At a press conference in Accra yesterday under the theme �Vigilante Against Propaganda,� a Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, John Boadu, parried each and every one of the claims made by eth NDC propaganda team, describing it as �most annoying�. Inflation On inflation, Mr. Boadu noted, �It should never be too hard for even the lay person to appreciate that if the NDC had inherited an inflation rate of 40.5% as the NPP did in January 2001, they could not have achieved single digit rate of inflation.� This, he said, was because �they were lucky to inherit an inflation rate of 18.1%. Yet Mr. Fiifi Kwetey thinks this is the NDC government�s biggest achievement�. By the year 2004, he explained that the �NPP government had reduced inflation from 40.5% as inherited from the previous NDC government, to 16.4�. �The result of single digit inflation is the gargantuan increases in prices of goods and services,� he said, adding, �Over the 3 years of the current NDC government, the price of any item you can think of has risen by between 50% to over 300%�. He used basic things such as sachet water which was 3Gp in 2008 and had risen to 10Gp in 2012 and a tin of Ideal Milk which had jumped from 60Gp from the time to GH�1.20 now, in his argument. When the NPP assumed office from the NDC in 2001, Mr Boadu noted, �this country was a highly indebted and poor country, and the NPP Government had to subscribe to the HIPC initiative to deliver the economy from total collapse. And for people like Mr. Fiifi Kwetey who claim that going HIPC was not helpful, we draw attention to paragraph 96 of the NDC government�s 2009 budget statement: �The ratio of Gross Public Debt to GDP declined from 142.6 per cent in 2001 to 41.4 per cent in 2006 under the dual impact of the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI)�.� This, he said, was the testimony of the NDC about what the NPP did in 2001. He said, �Today, the sectors of Ghana�s economy are in shambles. The NPP is looking for the opportunity to fix them.� Exchange Rate On exchange rate, Mr Boadu indicated that �the Deputy Minister just mixed up the figures without attempting to understand what the figures mean for the livelihood of the average Ghanaian.� �When the cedi appreciates against international currencies, it hurts our exports, affects economic growth and slows down job creation. At the same time, a depreciation of the cedi leads to higher prices of imported goods which increases the cost of living. �So, we should be having a discussion about the most balanced exchange rate that produces the best outcomes for our economy. The misinformation that the cedi is appreciating when everybody knows that it is depreciating is nothing but falsehood from a former Propaganda Secretary,� he stated, wondering how one could describe a currency that had depreciated by over 58% i.e. from GH�1.12 in January 2009 to GH�1.75 as at now (a period of 3 years), compared with a cumulative depreciation of 30% by 2004 and 57% for the entire 8-year period of the NPP administration- from 71Gp in January 2001 to GH�1.12 in December 2008 as an achievement. Growth Rate The Deputy Communications Director was surprised that Fiifi Kwetey had the courage to talk about economic growth as an achievement, quoting what the NDC said about growth in June 2009; Page17, paragraph 47, �Annual GDP growth was 1.6 percentage point (5.7 against 4.1) higher over the period than during the previous six years (1996-2001).� Simply put, he said, �The NPP inherited a GDP growth of 3.7% and under $4bn GDP in 2000 and bequeathed to the NDC 8.4% GDP growth and over $34bn GDP in 2008.� He said, �The NDC returned to power, after inheriting a GDP growth of 8.4% in 2008, only managed as usual, to achieve 4.0% in 2009, 7.7% in 2010 and 13.7% in 2011 when oil kicked in. Thus in 2011, non-oil GDP was 6.5%. Clearly this is not a record that any patriotic Ghanaian should be proud of and boasts about.� Arrears The NPP also disputed figures put out by the ruling NDC, with Mr Boadu asking the Deputy Finance Minister to show Ghanaians where arrears for 2008 were 34 trillion cedis. He emphasised, �According to the report presented to the IMF by his own Ministry, page 27 table 2B shows the following: Ghana: Summary of Central Government budgetary operations, 2008 -13, arrears outstanding in 2008 was GH�1.353bn, 2009 was GH�1.592bn, 2010 was GH�2.158bn.� He asked, �So where is this 34 trillion cedis coming from? Can we safely conclude that this is an aspect of goat-turned-to-cow philosophy?� Boadu said, �The NPP is looking for the opportunity to clean the mess!� The NPP has expressed its readiness to salvage the economy if given the mandate to steer the affairs of the nation come December 2012 when the country heads for the polls to elect a President.