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Vice Presidential Nominee, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has spoken for the first time after his selection by the President, defending the massive depreciation of the Cedi against the dollar this year. In an interview with Citi FM, Mr Amissah-Arthur said policies engineered under his tenure as governor largely stabilized the currency. His comments come in the wake of massive public criticism over the depreciation of the Cedi which hit almost 20 percent by the end of the second quarter. Mr. Amissah Arthur however says monitory policies instituted under his watch have largely worked. �I know that the record of the cedi will be an issue in this election but every election year in this country, from 1992 to date, the cedi has been destabilized. Really if you look at the data, this is the year where it has been lowest. In other years there has been a 60% depreciation, a 40% depreciation in an election year. So we have learnt lessons from those depreciations and not all of them are economic factors.� �The problem this year was that it started much earlier than in previous elections years and the political business cycle has been used as an explanation for some of the things that are happening.� �I think that we have done quite tremendous work in stabilizing the cedis as it is. As of now we are talking something like 17% depreciation year to date which, in an election year is not untypical�.