Injecting dollars to stabilize the "most needless and shameful" Cedi – Kwame Pianim | Economy

The recent injection of nearly a billion dollars into the economy by the central bank to stabilize the Ghana cedi is the "most useless" and "shameful" use of Ghana's hard-earned foreign exchange, said the economist Kwame Pianim.

At an economic forum held in Accra on the theme: "The Ghana cedi, breaking the cycle of depreciation", Mr. Pianim said that this use of Ghana's forex was futile.

The central bank recently injected some $ 800 million into the system after a cedi fall close to the $ 1 rate: GHS6.

Coupled with the recent issuance of a $ 3 billion euro bond that has been oversubscribed six times, the cedi has taken up value and traded at $ 1: 5.16 SGH but has recently fallen to 1: 5.41 GHS.

According to Mr. Pianim, "In 1988 we brought the black market rate closer to the official rate. That's when we created the bureaux de change to try to mobilize the private sector dollars and put them in the main sector.

"We now have one determined by the market, and the central bank has sometimes invested $ 700 million to stabilize the cedi. It is the most useless and shameful use of our hard earned currencies that should be used to transform the economy.

"Instead of using this [for that purpose], you can use it to process tomatoes so that we do not matter, for rice so as not to import, "he said, adding," For a stable long-term approach, as I have said, we have to move to restructure the economy.

He also said that Ghanaians should learn to blame the Ghana Independent Bank for the weakness of the cedi rather than the government. "We should not blame the government for the depreciation of the cedi," he said, adding, "We should blame the governor of the Bank of Ghana because it is their job."