National Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC),Sammy Gyamfi, maintains that Ghana's economy was in ruins long before COVID-19 appeared.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Russia and Ukraine are to blame for Ghana's economic crisis, according to the Akufo-Addo administration.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva earlier confirmed that COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war had a negative impact on the nation's economy.

Sammy Gyamfi, however, claimed that the IMF chief was being diplomatic with the truth about the true state of the Ghanaian economy when he appeared on Citi TV's Face to Face with Umaru Sanda Amadu.

He claimed that the IMF managing director massaged the numbers because he didn't want to endanger the government's efforts to restructure its debt as part of the bailout, hence the massaged facts regarding the economic crisis.

The NDC’s National Communications Officer reiterated that the economy was broken before the outbreak of COVID-19.

“The economy was worse before COVID-19 came in, even before COVID-19 our economy was broken. It’s not what the IMF or World Bank says, it’s about what the facts say. The IMF is like a doctor, doctors have a certain duty of care to their clients. They will tell you reasons for your sickness but in a diplomatic way and well-dressed manner”.

He maintained, “right now that we have gone to IMF for a bailout, they are our doctor, and we are the patient. They will definitely not say something that actually reflects the reality, knowing that it can hamper the bailout and economic recovery programme we are seeking from them. They were being diplomatic. In diplomatic settings, it’s very normal. If you listen to what these external players are saying, you will be deceived. You need to examine things for yourself, before COVID-19 what was the state of the economy?”.

Mr. Gyamfi asserted that the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be used as a justification by the government for the woes of the country slamming the government for spending money on wasteful ventures.

“They [NPP government] had more resources to transform this country than any government since Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s tenure. Yet have wasted these funds on needless and useless ventures such that today they have very little to show for the unprecedented resources they had. These and many falsehoods were presented by President Akufo-Addo in his state of the nation address,” the National Communications Officer of NDC pointed out.

According to him, the local currency had depreciated by close to 13% against the dollar before COVID-19 describing as false claims that the economy was on a good trajectory before the pandemic.

“Before COVID-19, our cedi had depreciated against the dollar by close to 13%. That claim that we were on a good trajectory before COVID-19 is false,” he stated.