Dr Gideon Boako, who speaks for Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on economic issues, has said Ghanaians should not be ungrateful to the Akufo-Addo government as far as the depreciation of the cedi is concerned, since the current government has done a lot to reduce the rate of fall of the local currency from 31% to 6% – a far better record, in his view, than the Mahama administration achieved.
The cedi is nearing the 5 to $1 mark, a situation that has set businesspeople on edge.
“What is important is that; whatever the depreciation was at the time is not the same as today”, Dr Boako told Accra-based Citi TV, adding: “That is why if someone has been able to reduce the rate of depreciation from a point of 31 per cent to 6 per cent, you do not just be ungrateful to that person and say he has not done well.”
It means, he said, “That given the chance that person has what it takes to take you to a point where you have zero depreciation and you can think of how to grow up; that is the most important.
“If you do not situate the argument within that context, you will just be comparing the nominal figures”, Dr. Boako argued.
In his view, “It is important to also note that insofar as we don’t run a fixed exchange rate regime, depreciation is something that will be difficult to say you won’t see it at all.
“You try as much as possible to contain it and make sure you appreciate, but given the structure of our economy right from Guggisberg’s time to Nkrumah to today, the structure of the economy is such that we are mostly net importers, and, so, the trade accounts issued will affect our local currency at all times.
“We also have huge exposures to foreign investors in the country – those who are doing retail businesses and the likes, so they repatriate money outside and all of these will have effect on us”, he explained.
VIDEO-
Source: classfmonline.com
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
When people are unwilling to educate themselves about economic matters let alone accept their fallacious logic, sometimes it will be better for a government to say very little. The problem with the Ghanaian currency goes as far back as the 1960s with erroneous populist economic decisions. The only time an effort was made to redress the problem was when you signed up to HIPIC only for the modest gain attained to be wiped out in 2009 onwards with the same wrong decisions made in the past. You cannot expect your currency to compete favourably against the dollar if you continue to import most of the goods that you consume when in fact most of those goods can be produced in your country. Where is the logic in importing things like cooking oil, rice, biscuits, frozen chicken and even tooth picks into a country with high levels of unemployment therefore availability of labour force not a problem? Why import used car parts into your country when you could get licences from car manufacturers to manufacture the car parts locally? If you refuse to do the right things then expect hardships and face the consequences of your actions. For your information Ghana is not the only country whose currency has depreciated against the dollar.
Idiotic lies, super incompetent lies, ***barred word*** and clueless government in power that does not know how to manage even a simple bank that are collapsing everywhere.
clueless NPP!!