We’ll arrest 'free-falling' Cedi – Majority

The Majority in Parliament has assured that the Akufo-Addo government will soon arrest the cedi from further depreciating against the dollar.

The Ghanaian cedi hit a record low earlier this week due mainly to global pressures as investors continue to exit emerging market assets.

According to Reuters, the currency of the major commodity exporter has weakened since the beginning of May, trading at 4.8250 cedis to the dollar.

Cumulatively, the local unit depreciated by 5.3 per cent in the first six months, compared to 3.3 per cent in the first half of last year despite significant increments of weekly dollar sales to local banks in the country.

The depreciating of the cedi was a major issue in the 2016 general elections, criticizing the Mahama administration poorly handling the economy when they were in power.

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the time incessantly teased former President John Mahama for appearing clueless in halting that depreciation of the cedi.

Mr. Mahama only last month complained about the cedi to dollar exchange rate, which he said stood at GHc4.7 to $1.

Also the deputy Minority Leader James Klutse Avedzi earlier this week predicted doom for the cedi tasking Dr. Bawumia to focus on arresting the free-fall of the cedi.

According to him, the cedi has depreciated from January 2017 to date by over 26% saying “that tells you that the fundamentals of the economy is still weak.”

However, speaking to Starr News, deputy Majority chief whip and a member of the Finance Committee Matthew Nyindam posited that measures are being rolled out by the government to stabilise the local currency.

“We will arrest the cedi. You think we want to joke? We are going to arrest the cedi,” he told journalists Friday in Parliament.

He also noted that comparing the current exchange rate to last year’s “it is far better than what we are seeing a month ago because it started very fast and it is not good news.”