The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is intentionally causing fear and panic among investors by consistently accusing the government of incompetence in the management of the economy. That is according to a deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Fifi Kwettey.
Mr. Kwettey says the NPP must show reverence to the truth and admit that they left the economy in shambles in 2008; a situation that has put exceptional pressure on the cedi.
The cedi has since January 2012, suffered a free fall against the major trading currencies. It started the year around GHS 1.1p but is currently at GHS1.90p. NPP therefore says government’s inability to manage the depreciation of the cedi is because it is bereft of ideas.
Incompetent Government?
A statement signed by the Chairman of the party’s Economic Committee, Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo said, “the government appears to be totally lost as to how to resolve this problem, while prices of goods and services keep rising by the day! This makes untenable the reported single digit inflation as there seems to be a disjoint between cost of goods and the inflation rate.”
Mr. Osafo Maafo said, the spiraling rise in the cost of living evident in the daily rise in the prices of goods and services on the market “is the result of the NDC government's inability to keep the currency stable.”
But in an interview with XYZ News, the deputy minister said the position taken by the NPP is a blatant disregard for the achievements chalked by the government. He said the NPP “conveniently” failed to consider how the cedi depreciated by 20 percent in 2008 and chose to pick on the 2012 statistics.
“It might appear that NPP is typically, having seen the latest performance of the cedi, releasing this statement simply to cause panic and possibly frighten people into another spiral of buying the dollar out of fear,” he averred.
A Convenient Accusation
He said “the truth is that in the year 2008 under the watch of [the NPP] government, the cedi depreciated by 20% under you watch… It is simply convenient the way you just move from 2008 and to 2012 creating the impression that in 2008 the cedi was perfect.”
He said the NPP government at the time had to prevent further depreciation of the currency by depleting the country’s reserves, adding “the other is because you had to sell Ghana Telecom. Otherwise the depreciation rate in the year 2008 would have absolutely gone way, way beyond the 20%.”
He stated that the government has done enough to stabilize the cedi in the last two weeks and therefore must be commended for the effort.
“Between 8th June till date, 27th June; meaning from the ending of the first week of June, the average interbank rate is actually showing an appreciation and not a depreciation.”
Nana Addo and the 'All-die-be-die' mantra
He explained that the issue of liquidity and the exponential public sector wage bill, which now stands at about 7 billion from 2 billion in 2010 has taken a toll on the economy and that government is working to ensure that the election year is not affected by the current situation.
“Every economy in the world that has such liquidity will certainly have some difficulties because some of those massive moneys that are in the system will find their way to patronising foreign goods and dollars for speculative purposes.”
He went on to urge the NPP to call their flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, to order and counsel him to refrain from making genocidal comments that only crash investor confidence in the economy.
“We are calling on Dr. Osafo Maafo to especially bring pressure to bear on the his flagbearer so that statements such as all-die-be-die that inspire people like Kennedy Agyapong to make genocidal comments that frighten people; because its creates the view that Ghana is going to implode, those things are absolutely not good in building investor confidence.”**
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