Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil says the continuous depreciation of the Ghanaian Cedi shows that there is something fundamentally wrong with our economy.
Speaking on Joy FM's NewsFile on Saturday, March 16, Kofi Bentil said the current state of the Cedi shows that those managing the economy are not doing a good job.
According to him, he is not putting all the blame at the doorstep of the economic management team, but from all indications, the team is not able to identify the real cause of the Cedi depreciation.
He added that Ghana had a trade surplus and low inflation, so the old theory of export more and import less seems not to be the case now because U.S has the biggest trade deficit but the dollar is still stable. The cedi now sells on Saturday, March 16 at 5.56.
"Let's not assume we know what is causing this. Let us get people to sit down and analyze the depreciation and solve it."
Kofi Bentil was reacting to statement of the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta that the Cedi will in few weeks time stabilise.
Read also: Ken Ofori Atta assures Cedi will stabilise in 2 weeks
The Finance Minister addressing the media said efforts are underway to stabilise the cedi.
“We have about $300 million coming in from COCOBOD and another $600 million also from COCOBOD in about a month or so. We have officially launched our Eurobond which will be $3 billion and that should close within the next couple of weeks.â€
Mr Ofori-Atta acknowledged that the challenge of governments over time has been how to structurally balance imports and exports. He also said the tag given to the Cedi as the cheapest in Africa is not fair.
“Inflation is at a single digit which is good, growth has been string (six per cent through the third quarter of last year), our budget deficit has gone down in a strong way and we are also getting surpluses in our current account,†he said stressing that there is no need for panic.
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But Kofi Bentil said these approaches did not show we are aware of the real causes of the Cedi depreciation.
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