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Company News of Friday, March 29, 2019
Source: ghananewsagency.org
2019-03-29
Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance
Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, said the cedi had made great strides in recovery thanks to the successful issuance of the $ 3 billion dollar bond and to the US dollar. completion of the IMF review, which had restored confidence in the economy.
He said that currently, the cedi had made substantial gains and that, thanks to the measures put in place, it had anticipated the stability of the cedi thanks to sound economic fundamentals.
"Indeed, the cedi is appreciated 5.12% in March 2019 only, against a depreciation of 2.7% in the same period last year," added the minister.
Mr Ofori-Atta made this statement during a speech to Parliament on some key recent events in the field of the economy for the first quarter of 2019.
Some of the events included; formal completion of the Extended Credit Facility program with the IMF, issuance of euro bonds, recent developments in the foreign exchange market and the cedi, and the visit of the Vice President of World Bank for Africa, Mr. Hafez Ghanem.
Mr. Ofori-Atta also said that the depreciation of Ghana's currency was not due to weak economic fundamentals, but rather to a combination of structural rigidities and apparent speculative behavior of portfolio investors and market participants.
"It should also be noted that, while this is a challenge, the cedi has performed better in the last two years than in 2012 to 2016."
Mr. Ofori-Atta then explained that the Cedi had experienced turbulence despite the country's strong economic fundamentals and improved balance of payments, which the government had managed to achieve in the last two years.
"We have worked hard to ensure that economic fundamentals are strong and able to support economic growth and transformation," he said.
He quoted statistics that showed that inflation had fallen from 15.4% in 2016 to 9.4% in 2018, the budget deficit from 6.5% to 3.9% in 2018, the rate of Interest on 91-day Treasury bill from 16.3% in 2016 to 14.6% in 2018 and current account deficit from 6.6% in 2016 to 3.2% in 2018.
Ofori-Atta also said that current economic progress, sustained GDP growth and economic transformation would ultimately ensure the stability of the currency in the medium term.
He added that the Bank of Ghana would remain vigilant in the short term to establish adequate margins of safety and promote market discipline in the medium-term currency market. "The government will ensure that we have a transformed economy that will strengthen our trade accounts, our current accounts and our capital account."
Mr. Fiifi Kwetey, MP for Ketu South in his contribution, refuted Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta's badertion that the NDC government would have signed a three-year extended IMF credit facility in 2015 to fill a gap of $ 930 million hole in the economy.
He argued that the figure released by the finance minister was too lean and derisory to have forced the NDC government to seek a bailout from the IMF.
He said that the NDC administration under Mahama had spent a lot more in infrastructure to account for a shortfall of $ 930 million, enough for an IMF bailout.
Mr. Fiifi Kwetey, who was also a former deputy finance minister, described the celebration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government on the occasion of Ghana's exit from the Ghana IMF as a "feint".
He said the NPP government's attempt to claim an economic messiah crown while Ghana was leaving the IMF program in 2019 was misleading.
He said that history did not give this title to the NPP because shortly after leaving the IMF in 2006, the NPP government, chaired by President John Kufuor, suspended its budget cuts and was launched into reckless spending.
He added that despite a budget deficit target of about 4% in 2008, the NPP government had reached a 15% deficit, or 11%, which he described as the highest in the world. # 39; history.
"Your story shows that you have already left the IMF, but the disaster you left two years after its completion was absolutely terrible," he added.
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