Prof. Dennis Nsafoah, a Ghanaian economist based in Canada, claims he hasn’t noticed any appreciable differences after analyzing economic data from 1992, suggesting the argument over which political party better runs the country’s economy is over.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has fiercely denied the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) repeated claims that it manages the Ghanaian economy more effectively when it is in power.
Nsafoah, an associate professor of economics at Niagara University, compared the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress’s debt-to-GDP ratio, real GDP growth, average inflation rate, and cedi depreciation. All of the data was nearly identical.
Speaking on Thursday, February 15, 2024, at Tesah Capital and Citi TV/Citi FM’s joint event, The Investment Dialogue, Prof. Nsafoah made it clear that the NPP has outperformed the NDC in terms of cedi depreciation over time.
However, he emphasized that even after accounting for all other economic factors, this difference is still not statistically significant.
Does an administration headed by the NPP perform better economically than an administration headed by the NDC? Anecdotal evidence should no longer be used for this. We have enough data from 1992 to provide empirical support for any perception,” he said.
Depending on the administration’s supervisor, I examined the data for these five variables. In summary, I have not found enough evidence to substantiate the assertion that the economic performance of one party is better than that of the other. There was no statistically significant difference between the NDC and the NPP when we looked at the real GDP growth rate. There was no statistically significant difference in the public debt-to-GDP ratio, average inflation rate, or per capita growth rate.
The cedi depreciation rate was the only variable in which I observed a statistically significant difference. It appears that the CEDI has performed better in the years when the NPP has led affairs than it has in the years when the NDC has. In any case, the argument over who performs better than the other is not resolved by this, he continued.
The Investment Dialogue, which aired live on Citi TV and Citi FM, had the theme “Clarity in the Chaos.” Bernard Koku Avle, General Manager of Citi TV/Citi FM, served as the moderator.
