The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has blaming the depreciation of the cedi on ramifications of poor policy direction under the John Mahama-led administration, is now accusing the current Akufo-Addo government of lying to Ghanaians about the actual percentage of the depreciation they are supervising.
“The thing was 4.20 (cedis). Now, in 18 months since we came, it is 5 cedis. At some places, it is even ¢5.20! What is he (Dr Boako) talking about? If you look well, 80 pesewas has come to join it.
Simple mathematics is 80p over [divided by] Gh¢4.20p times [multiplied by] 100 (%), it gives you 19%! So how can Boako say it is 6%?”
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Last week, Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has however come out to defend the government’s handling of the cedi insisting it has never been better in the last eight years
According to a report sighted by AtinkaNews.on Myjoyonline.com, the vice president who was on Friday September 14, speaking during the launch of the National School Entrepreneurship Initiative in the Northern Region explained current happenings.
He pointed out that the slower rate of depreciation was because under the Akufo-Addo government, the fundamentals of the economy were getting stronger.
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He added that more evidence of a strong economy was in the increasing economic growth rate, decreasing inflation rate, decreasing fiscal deficit, decreasing debt to GDP ratio and an improving gross international reserves.
Bawumia went o to reveal that the current depreciation could be linked to happenings in the US economy.
The US Federal Reserve has increased interest rates which has made the dollar attractive to investors.
“You see investors moving money into the US to buy US-denominated assets” because the rewards will be much better, he observed.
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This move by the US government has far-reaching global implications on the strength of other currencies.
Although the cedi is trading close to 5 cedis to a dollar and more than 5 cedis on the black market, the Vice-President explained the rate of depreciation was much slower than previously.
Comparing the data from 2012 to 2018, Dr. Bawumia said the cedi recorded 17.5% in 2012, 14.6% in 2013, 31.3% in 2014, 15.6% in 2015, 9.6% in 2016 and 4.9% in 2017.
Bawumia said Ghana’s 7% depreciation showed that the current managers of the economy had significantly strengthened the cedi against shocks from the dollar.
The Akufo-Addo government, he said, had done “much better than our predecessors and much better than other countries”.
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