Economy At Recovery State . . .Cedi Will Regain Its Full Strength Very Soon - Bawumia’s Spokesperson

Spokesperson for the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Dr. Gideon Boako, believes irrespective of the current downward spiral of the cedi, against some foreign trading currencies, especially the dollar, the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government needs to commended for performing a yeoman's task in prudently managing the economy.

This is so because, he said, the current administration was bequeathed a country with very weak macro-economic fundamentals.

According to him, even though Ghanaians are justified in being scared of the Ghc5 to $1 ratio, it will be unfair for critics to crucify the Akufo-Addo government, when in actual sense the Cedi has only depreciated by 2.3 percent.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show to explain the fall of the Cedi, Dr. Gideon Boako insisted the depreciation of the Cedi shows how well the government has managed the macro-economic fundamentals.

He stressed the story will have been different if the 2014 macro-economic fundamental which was 30 percent downwards is still in use today to calculate the strength of the Cedi against the dollar.

"The government is performing well on the Cedi stability and it is true that Ghanaians are scared of the Ghc5 to $1 ratio but if you look at it carefully, the government has done well because even though the Cedi has depreciated, it has done well with 2.3 percent drop in the macro-economic fundamental; it has not move downward to 4 percent or 5 percent,” he stated.

He held the view that naturally, the Cedi must be made to stay afloat. The structure of the country is such that Ghanaians depend more on imports than exportation of goods; hence the pressure on the Cedi.

“ . . but the most important thing to do is to put right the macro-economic fundamentals in place so that if the Cedi may depreciate, it will not go down at a faster rate and this is why this government has done well. To the extent that on average, there is not a single year that the macro-economy dropped more than 7%. In 2017, the macro-economy dropped by 4.9%; 2018 was around 7% and in this year, it is around 2.3%,” he hinted.

He maintained that the current macro-economic fundamental “is better than in previous years; it dropped by 30% which made Dr. Bawumia in 2014 to say that when macro-economic fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you”.

“As at that time [2014], the strength of the macro-economic fundamental had dropped by 30% for the year and when it happens like that, it is alarming. If the rate at which the macro-economic fundamentals used to drop by 30% in 2014 is still in existence under Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government, we would have bought $1 by Ghc10,” he indicated.

He however implored the government to continue in its efforts to stabilize the cedi permanently.

To be honest with you, we inherited very weak macro-economic fundamentals but because it was very weak, we were bound to hit $1 for Ghc5. All our efforts to reduce drastically the sickness of our cedi was not enough to prevent the Cedi from falling prey to the Dollar. The sickness of the Cedi will take more time to heal completely; our Cedi has come out of coma and it is now at the recovery state and if this government continues with the treatment, the Cedi will regain its full strength very soon,” he posited.