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The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says the Ghana cedi is doing better compared to its performance under the erstwhile Mahama administration.

As of March 2022, the Bank of Ghana indicated that so far in 2022, the cedi depreciated by about 14.6% to the US dollar. 

Speaking at a forum organized by TESCON in collaboration with the Danquah Institute at the Pentecost Conference Centre at the Millennium City in Kasoa in the Central Region, Thursday, 7 April 2022, Dr Bawumia said unlike the cedi depreciating at a rate of 18 percent under former President John Mahama, “average exchange rate depreciation during 2017-2021" is "6.8% under our government".

"Average exchange rate depreciation during 2017-2021, at 6.8% under our government, is more than twice as stable than during the 2013-2016 period. The financial markets assessment of the 2022 Budget generally concluded that the projected 40% increase in revenue underpinning the budget would likely not materialize and therefore the deficit will be higher than projected," he said.

Meanwhile, the Vice President has explained what led to the depreciation of the cedi.

“Why did we see this? A number of factors can be adduced to explain what happened . . . the chaotic battle in Parliament over the passage of the budget. This created uncertainties and signaled to the market that the government may not be able to get most of its programme passed in a tightly balanced Parliament. This further reinforced the lack of confidence by investors in the budget.

“Furthermore, delays in implementing major tax reforms such as the benchmark policy reversal, tax exemptions common platform property tax appeared to support the assessment of the market that the government would have difficulty in getting its programmes through Parliament.

“To add to this negative market sentiment, there was a sovereign credit rating downgrade by Fitch and Moody’s, as a result of the concerns about fiscal and debt sustainability. If you are unable to pass your budget with the revenue measures in there, then your fiscal situation and debt will not get better, this was their assessment. This resulted in the unwillingness of foreign investors to roll over their holdings of our domestics debt and they demanded foreign exchange to repatriate their investments," he said.