Our worst is your best; your ‘chalewote’ can’t match our boots – Bawumia to NDC

Vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says despite the fall in value of the cedi against major trading currencies, the Akufo-Addo government has better managed the local currency than the previous government.

Commenting on the cedi depreciation for the time in Accra Wednesday, Dr Bawumia said available data have shown the government has performed well in managing the local currency which recently exchanged at 5.8 cedis per dollar.

According to him, the cedi which depreciated by 8.4 percent in 2018, which is so far the worst under the current government, is in fact the best performance the previous government under John Mahama recorded within its four-year period.

“Data on the annual rate of depreciation of the cedi in recent years shows that the worst performance so far under the NPP government, that worst performance is better than the best performance under the previous government between 2012 and 2016.

“Our worst is better than your best,” he said at the maiden town hall meeting of the government’s economic management team.

Dr Bawumia who leads the economic management team said on the face of the record, the National Democratic Congress cannot there for say they will meet the New Patriotic Party boot for boot, saying “This one is more like boot for Charlie wote”.

In his view, the recent depreciation of the cedi was caused by IMF conditions, noting prior to Ghana exiting the extended credit facility on April 2, the IMF gave Ghana seven actions to complete before March 15.

“The most important and the proximate cause of the recent depreciation is the time inconsistency of an IMF prior action on the reserves target,” Dr Bawumia said.

These conditions, he said the Bank of Ghana had to meet.

Dr. Bawumia said the Bank of Ghana had to increase net international reserve by the end of January, and that the BoG could not sell any foreign exchange in the market within that period, hence the inability to meet the foreign currency demand.

“So demands for foreign currency was not met by supply as normally happens on a day-to-day basis, and we know when the demand is greater than the supply or the supply is not coming, the price will go up and this exactly what was happening,” he said.