Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper Kwesi Pratt Jnr says the Cedi depreciation dated back to 1983 when it began losing its value up to now.
Speaking on Accra based radio station 'Radio Gold', Kwesi Pratt said from 1983 up to 2019 the Cedi has depreciated at about 30,000%.
Recounting the history of the Cedi depreciation, the Veteran journalist said: "The Cedi did not start depreciating today or yesterday, if you check the records since 1983 the Cedi has devalued by between 23,000% and 30,000%, as at 1983 the cedi was exchanging at 2.75 cedis to a dollar, today if you are looking at 2.75 cedis in 1983 in the current cedi you can't find it, 2.75cedi is worth less than one pesewa today, so cumulatively depreciation of the cedi since 1983 is about 30,000%."
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The Ghanaian Cedi has for the past three months depreciated at 8.4%, selling at 5.55 cedi on Monday, March 18, but on Wednesday, March 20 the cedi has appreciated at 5.41 against the dollar.
Commenting on efforts by the Finance Minister to inject more dollars into the economy to deal with the cedi depreciation, Kwesi Pratt said the step will not yield the needed results because this has been the same approach used over the years.
He added that there are structural problems with our economy making it difficult for the cedi to trade fairly with the dollar.
"There is a structural problem with the economy which was worsened by the push towards neo-liberalism in 1983, the adoption of the so-called economic recovery programme deepen our own woes in 1983 and we have not corrected that situation and the Cedi will continue to depreciate no matter what we do, look we are now told we are about to inject about 4.5 billion dollars into the economy to stabilise the cedi, it will be a waste of everybody's time we have been trying this over and over again and the cedi keeps depreciating, anytime we have crisis with the cedi we look for dollars pomp it into the economy and the situation becomes worse."
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