The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta has said the cedi is performing better under the Nana Addo administration.
The Minister’s assertion comes weeks after a significant depreciation of the cedi.
“The cedi suffered major turbulence during the first quarter of the year mainly as a result of a confluence of factors including pressure on the current account as a result of income transfers by corporate as well as seasonal importers among others.This turbulence happened despite the strong economic fundamentals and improvements in our balance of payments which our government has achieved in the last two years.
“We have done so much work to ensure that the economic fundamentals are robust and able to support economic growth and transformation. It is also note worthy that despite this challenge, the cedi has performed better over the last two years than when compared specifically to 2012 and 2015 ,” said the Minister while addressing Parliament on today [Thursday].
[contextly_sidebar id=”Uq4v30V871zMwoVyad3K2IV3chpum9qr”]The value of the cedi until earlier this week had greatly reduced, sparking concerns of economic challenges.
At a point, it was trading at GHc 5.80 to a dollar but it began gaining strength this week after a government intervention which was actually expected to yield evident results within two weeks.
A former Deputy Finance Minister under Mahama administration, Fifi Kwetey has said the recent appreciation of the cedi is only temporary and will depreciate again.
According to him, the government’s capital injection into the economy as a means to stop the currency from depreciating, will not solve the challenges with the economic fundamentals responsible for the currency’s depreciation.
The Minority in Parliament has already discredited the development but the government has been quick to tout the achievement which it says is an indication of a stronger economy.
But Fifi Kwetey says the improvement being seen with the cedi will not last.
“This temporary injection that has taken place is basically going to have the same effect [as last year]. They did that, thinking that somehow that is going to lure the people into a certain sense of security but that security will be short-lived,” he said.
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By: Marian Ansah | citinewsroom.com | Ghana