The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has insisted that Ghana’s exchange rate has fared better under the Akufo-Addo-led government than the previous administration.
Dr. Bawumia said this in reaction to criticisms that the cedi keeps depreciating against major currencies despite his comments that the exchange rate is under control.
While defending government’s macroeconomic performance in an interview on Joy News, Dr. Bawumia maintained that the current depreciation of the cedi is 50 percent less than the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.
“Fundamentally, we have managed the cedi much better by all accounts. We did arrest the depreciation of the cedi and if you look at the records in terms of the depreciation of the cedi in the last eight years, since the NPP came into power, the rate of the cedi depreciation is 50 percent less than what it was before. That is what the data shows. So yes indeed, we have arrested the depreciation of the cedi and brought down inflation and interest rates. We have also brought down the deficit and increased growth. We have reduced unemployment, reduced the price of electricity and water and created many jobs. We are the only government that had been able to do that,” Dr. Bawumia mentioned.
Dr. Bawumia has in the past noted that the cedi is the best performing currency in the world against the US dollar.
The cedi depreciation, which has been a major problem in the country over the years, even led to the inauguration of the FX Development Committee to tackle issues relating to the depreciation of the cedi and find solutions to them.
The opposition party had trumpeted a popular quote from Dr. Bawumia that “if your fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you” to show that the NPP government had also failed in the management of the cedi.
But Dr. Bawumia at a town hall meeting in 2019 similarly took a jab at the NDC for an explanation of the cedi depreciation.
The Vice President insisted that the fundamentals are strong and described such arguments as warped.
