Botchwey On The Economic Plan
In a radio and television broadcast he said between 1978 and 1981 developing countries which produced no oil recorded a current account deficit of 166 billion dollars. Of the amount more than one third was attributable to rise in interest payments alone, another one third accounted for a drop in export earnings and yet another one third to oil increases.
He said the situation forced affected countries in the sub-region including oil producers to apply to the IMF for balance of payments support and that in the case of Ghana foreign exchange crisis caused by fast deterioration external environment was aggravated and by the receipt of lower net inflow of external assistance than other African countries in same income group.
The Secretary cautioned that the facts were not meant to apologise for the nation's mismanagement but were incontrovertible facts to remind Ghanaians that the economy is not an island, that it is affected by external factors outside the government control.
He referred to low productivity in all sectors of the economy between 1970 and 1980 and regretted that as the economy deteriorated incentives were provided for distributing the little that the nation produced, adding that this resulted in a situation where everybody began to steal and cheat a little to survive.
He said PNDC therefore launched a programme to correct a decade of mis management and declining input.
