Claim: The Member of Parliament for Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, has claimed that Ghana’s GDP growth rate in 2021 was 5.8%
False, according to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Ministry of Finance the GDP growth rate for 2021 was 5.4%,5.4% and 4.2% respectively, and not 5.8%.
Full Story
The Member of Parliament for Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, has said that Ghana’s GDP grew by 5.8% in 2021.
He made this claim in the 1minute 42 seconds to 1 minute:55 second of a short clip of the Akoko Abon show posted on the YouTube channel of Despite Media on July 9, 2022. The YouTube channel has over 200,000 subscribers.
According to him, “With GDP growth rate, they (NDC) did 2.9% in 2014, 2.1% in 2015, 3.4% in 2014, and we (NPP) moved it from 8.1% to 6.2% and even last year we did 5.8%.”
Verification
The Ghana Statistical Service defines Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth as the main indicator of economic performance.
DUBAWA decided to look at data from 2014 to 2021, especially since the claim quoted data for that period of time.
Our research was first directed to the World Bank, an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. We found out that even though figures quoted by Dr Nyarko from 2014 to 2020 were accurate, the figure quoted for 2021 was not.
According to the World Bank, GDP growth rate for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are 2.9%, 2.1%, 3.4%, 8.1%,6.2%,6.5%,0.5% and 5.4% respectively.
Evidently, this is contrary to the 5.8% provided by Dr Nyarko.
The International Monetary Fund also projected 4.2 as the GDP growth rate for 2021.
According to the Finance Ministry, the GDP for 2021 was 5.4%, not 5.8%. This was made known in a press release issued on 26th April 2022.
Conclusion
The claim by the Member of Parliament for Kwadaso, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, that Ghana’s GDP growth for 2021 was 5.8% is false. Data from the Ministry of Finance, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank quote 5.4%, 4.2% and 5.4% respectively.
