It has emerged that President John Dramani Mahama exposed Ghana to international ridicule recently after he blatantly told lies about the true state of the country's economy during the 2nd US-Africa Business forum in New York, which brought together business leaders to discuss the opportunity to grow the commercial ties between Africa and the United States.
He told the whole world that the growth of Ghana's economy currently stands at 4.9%, a figure which has been disapproved by the International Monetary Fund.
Even when he was corrected by the Moderator on the real figures for 2016, the president still wanted the world to believe the lies, insisting that the 3.2% figure quoted by Moderator was that of 2015.
Meanwhile, at constant price, the available data from the IMF show that the economy grew by 3.9% in 2015.
After claiming to be on top of current economic figures of Ghana, President Mahama embarrassed himself again to his colleague Presidents when he again lied about the country's projected GDP growth for 2017, saying the country was going to grow at 8%.
President Mahama's answer which seemed not convincing to the Moderator pushed her to demand from him if anyone could verify what the president had said.
However, IMF Country Report No. 16/321 of October 2016 gives contradicting figures to what Ghana's President told the world.
For instance, the latest figures which can be found in Table 1, Page 25 of the IMF Country Report shows that GDP at constant prices in 2014 was 4.0%, whilst 2015 slightly reduced by 0.1 percent to 3.9%.
And with two months to end 2016, the IMF recorded 3.3% GDP growth for 2016, and not the 4.9% lies spewed by the President.
Furthermore, the country's economy is not going to grow by 8% as told by President Mahama. It is expected to grow by 7.4% in 2017; that is even with oil. Per the IMF report, real GDP growth is projected at 4.5% for 2017, without oil.
Significantly, what has accounted for the huge jump from 3.3% to 7.4%, for 2017 is as a result of the coming on stream of the Sankofa oil fields.
The IMF report also discloses that Real GDP per Capita stood at 1.4%, in 2014, reduced to 1.3% for 2015, another high decline in 2016. However, it is projected to rise to 4.7%, in 2017; and this is hugely dependent on economic and political activities of the country.
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