In response to the 2023 mid-year budget review presented in Parliament on August 2, the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, criticized the Central Bank for being responsible for the depletion of Ghana's external reserves.

During his address, Dr. Ato Forson highlighted that the Bank of Ghana's printing of money led to the unprecedented depreciation of the Ghanaian Cedi, which resulted in hyperinflation in 2022.

According to him, the value of the Cedi plummeted from GH¢6 to $1 to over GH¢15 to $1 in 2022, representing a staggering 100% depreciation on a straight-line calculation.

The combination of this severe depreciation and the soaring inflation rates has had profound economic consequences, causing even the once wealthy to fall into the middle-class category, and pushing the already impoverished population further into hardship.

Dr. Ato Forson further emphasized the alarming impact of inflation, as it forced approximately 850,000 people to slip below the poverty line in 2022, as reported by the World Bank.

This concerning situation has prompted calls for accountability from the Central Bank for its role in the country's current financial challenges.

Dr Ato Forson said despite the earlier spirited denials by the Bank of Ghana and the government, “the government now admits that indeed the Bank of Ghana printed money to finance its over-bloated government expenditures in 2022”.

“Paragraph 8 of the IMF Staff Report gives further detail that the Bank of Ghana illegally printed over GHC45 billion representing 7.2% of GDP in 2022 alone, and GH¢35 billion in 2021. This is the first in the history of Ghana”, he said.

Describing the Central Bank as “a crime scene”, the Minority Leader said the government was instrumental in the commission of the sins of the Bank. “The Bank of Ghana is certainly a crime scene and the economic managers led by Mr. Strategist aided and abetted this economic crime”, Dr Ato Forson added.

He said on the watch of the current managers of the economy, Ghana’s public debt shot up from GH¢120 billion in 2016 to GH¢600 billion by the end of 2022, representing an increase of about 400%.

The Minority Leader pointed out that following the high debt levels, the country could not honour its obligations to its local and foreign debtors. “As a result of these high debt levels, Ghana defaulted in the repayment of both our domestic and foreign debts, the first time in our history”.

He said this explains why pensioners picketed at the Ministry of Finance to demand the payment of their interest and principal, which was another unenviable first in the history of Ghana. He added that that “rating agencies downgraded Ghana’s credit worthiness to “D”, in other words ‘super junky’.

Dr Ato Forson observed that the Ghana’s financial sector has virtually collapsed, with all the 23 banks in the country recording “massive impairment losses of over GH¢18 billion in 2022”.

He said “this is excluding the impairment losses of the non-bank financial institutions and the insurance companies”, adding that “the cost of the economic mismanagement by this government is unprecedented”.

Former deputy minister of finance Dr. Ato Forson claimed that the Bank of Ghana has also suffered as a result of the domestic debt restructuring carried out by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.

In fact, the Bank of Ghana is bankrupt and in severe financial crisis, he declared, calling for immediate intervention.

The Bank of Ghana reported losses totaling over GH60.8 billion and negative equity exceeding GH55.1 billion in 2022.