The Minority in Parliament has attributed the depreciation of the cedi to the gross mismanagement of the economy and wrong policy choices by the government.
It said the sharp cedi depreciation had worsened the country’s economy, which resulted in the collapse of companies, loss of jobs and decreasing investor confidence.
State of economy
At a media encounter on the state of Ghana’s economy in Accra yesterday, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance and Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, said: "Things are falling apart and the expected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 8.8 per cent cannot be achieved."
He said the worsening depreciation of the cedi with its attendant disruption of macro and microeconomic performance had affected the credibility of the budget statement and economic policy of government for the 2019 financial year.
Review micro, macroeconomic targets
Mr Forson, therefore, asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to present a new budget or statement to review the micro and macroeconomic targets and outline measures to address the shortfalls.
He again cautioned the government against taking desperate measures to arrest the falling cedi since those measures would worsen the situation.
It has been reported on various media platforms, both locally and internationally, that the cedi/US dollar exchange rate is expected to reach about GH¢6 per dollar by the end of the third quarter of 2019. The cedi/dollar exchange rate as of last Tuesday stood at GH¢5.65 per dollar and GH¢5.60 per dollar at Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited and Ghana Commercial Bank respectively.
The media encounter, which looked at the various sectors of the economy, was attended by journalists, leaders of trade associations and leaders of labour unions.
Policy decisions Mr Forson said that policy announcement was sending negative signals to the investor community because it was inconsistent with government policy decisions."The Finance Minister and his team should have known that our investors are aware that the projected deficit level cannot be achieved given their history of weak fiscal performance on the back of unrealistic revenue assumptions, expenditure underperformance and the accumulation of arrears," he said.He said the proposed financing options for 2019 further gave the indication that the deficit level would exceed 4.2 per cent of GDP (excluding financial sector costs). Guarantee to GNPC Besides, Mr Forson said, the government was about to give a guarantee to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to borrow about $250 million for […]
