Our expectations on Cedi stability very high - Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed optimism that the continuous consistent decline of the Ghana Cedi against its major trading currencies especially the dollar will stabilise in the near future.

Dr Bawumia asserted that he, together with his team of economic managers, are excited about the prospects of the cedi touting their ability to slow down the rate at which it fell.

Government has defended the performance of the cedi in the past 18 months despite its consistent drop especially the depreciation against the US dollar.

At the second day of the Ghana Economic Forum in Accra today, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia disclosed that the performance of the cedi against its major trading currencies is one of the best the country has witnessed.

He said the slow depreciation is as a result of the prudent management of the economy especially the macroeconomy.

The current value of the cedi is GHC4.7 up from a 2016 figure of GHC4.2 in the first quarter of the year.

“But for the recent headwinds posed by the erratic global capital flows, the exchange rate of the cedi to the US dollar has remained relatively stable. In fact, despite the recent marginal depreciation the cedi exchange rate supported by the relatively stronger fundamentals has been the slowest depreciation for the 18 months of any government since 1993. But our expectations are of course very high and we want to see the cedi even more stable”, he said.



The event brought together captains of industry from both public and private sectors to brainstorm on problems of the day and make proposals to government for consideration.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Bawumia said government is committed to delivering on its promise of economic improvements and better business climate.

The Vice President thus tasked the gathering to support government policies and exercise patience as government rolls the policies out for the benefit of all.

He suggested that by 2019 some of the initiatives like the national identification registration would have been completed nationwide and be permissible to acquire a license and also transfer government services unto digital platforms to make them non-cash reliant.