Cedi has depreciation slowest under Akufo-Addo – Buaben Asamoa insists

Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa, believes that diversification of the economy by his government has caused the rather slow depreciation of the country’s currency against the US dollars.

According to him, given all the previous political administrations as against the three years of the Akufo-Addo-led government, the cedi can be said to have depreciated at its slowest pace.

The Ghana cedi, which has been unstable against other international currencies over the past few years, saw a depreciation rate of about 13 percent against the dollar in 2019, per data compiled by Bloomberg.

This was one of the highest since 2015. The about 13 percent decline in the value of the cedi is comparable to the about 8.8% depreciation in 2018, 4.45% in 2017 and 9.2% in 2016.

However, the country’s effort to put a saddle on the cedi which was almost at a free fall in 2019 could barely reap any results as the cedi went as far GH¢5.8 to $1.

In spite of all these, Mr Asamoa maintains the interventions by the Akufo-Addo government has relatively began to shore up the cedi given that it is not an international currency.

In an interaction with GhanaWeb on Thursday, August 13, 2020, after a press conference he said, “we haven’t failed on the cedi...the cedi is relative and all the experts will tell you that it has depreciated slowest over the past three years given all the administration.”

Giving reasons to buttress his claims he said the new inspiring climb of the cedi is because the government is taking “strong steps to diversify this economy moving it from mere taxation to production and that is what is shoring up the cedi...the cedi not being an international currency will already be under pressure from international levels.”

“The cedi will be healthier the more we ground production in Ghana,” he argued.

Touting some achievements of the government as evidence that the cedi is gradually picking up its broken pieces.

“so when you see that Volkswagen is in Ghana, when you see that 1D1F is going on then you begin to realize that the cedi is going to consolidate over time but the biggest thing...is the experts telling us that the cedi has depreciated slowest and the least in Nana’s first three years compared to the other governments which have been incharge of the fourth republic,” Buaben Asamoa insisted.