Cedi depreciation: Something is wrong with our economy – Kofi Bentil

Economic News from Sunday, March 17, 2019

Source: primenewsghana.com

2019-03-17

The Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, said the continued depreciation of the Ghana Cedi shows that there is something wrong with our economy.

Speaking on NewsFile's Joy FM on Saturday, March 16, Kofi Bentil said that the current state of the Cedi shows that those who manage the economy are not doing a good job.

According to him, he does not put all the blame on the door of the economic management team, but by all indications, the team is not able to identify the real cause of the depreciation of the Cedi.

He added that Ghana had a trade surplus and low inflation, so that the old theory of exports plus imports less does not seem to be the case now because the United States has the biggest trade deficit, but the dollar remains stable. The cedi is now selling on Saturday, March 16th at 5.56.

"Let's not badume we know what's causing this situation, let people sit down to badyze the depreciation and solve it."

Kofi Bentil was responding to Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta's statement that the Cedi will stabilize in a few weeks.

The finance minister told the media that efforts were under way to stabilize the cedi.

"We are getting about $ 300 million from COCOBOD and another $ 600 million from COCOBOD in about a month. We have officially launched our Eurobond which will rise to $ 3 billion and is expected to be finalized within two weeks. "

Mr. Ofori-Atta acknowledged that the challenge for governments was how to structurally balance imports and exports. He also said that the label attributed to the Cedi as the cheapest in Africa is not fair.

"Inflation is a single digit, which is good, growth has been explosive (six percent in the third quarter of last year), our budget deficit has fallen sharply and our current account also generates surpluses," he said. said stressing that there was no need for panic.

But Kofi Bentil said that these approaches do not show that we are aware of the real causes of Cedi depreciation.