Skip to main content
GAPNEWS



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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GAPNEWS Inflation rate for May drops to 9.4% Inflation rate for May 2019 recorded a marginal reduction to 9.4 per cent down by 0.1 percentage point from the 9.5 per cent recorded in April 2019. Deputy Government Statistician, David Kombat has been explaining to the media in Accra that the rate recorded was highly influenced by the declining rate of food inflation in the measuring basket. "We have seen a slight decline in food prices especially vegetables as a result of the weather patterns. This usually happens when we're entering into the raining season and commodity prices begin to experience some dips but this is also accompanied by some reductions in certain components of the non-food items" he said. Upper West recorded the highest general inflation of 11.1 per cent whiles Ashanti the highest rate in food inflation. "The food and non-alcoholic beverage group recorded 7.3 per cent, a reduction of 1.1 per cent point lower than the rate recorded in April ...
GAPNEWS Ghana moves to capture US$2.4bn China soya market. The hefty tariff on soybeans from the United States has caused a 17 percent import decrease of the produce into China in February 2019, being the lowest level recorded since 2015, General Administration of Customs – Chinese statistical agency, has revealed. In 2017, U.S. soybean exports to China reached a volume of US$14.573 billion. Currently, the United States is the world’s largest soybean producer and second largest exporter, after Brazil. On the other hand, China is the world’s largest importer of soybeans – imported 91 million tonnes in 2018 market year as against 94 million tones the previous year. This suggests that the trade war between the two largest economies has created the opportunity for more than US$2.4 billion market share of soybeans that countries producing it can compete. Although, imports of soybean to China has reduced by 17 percent, this does not mean that consumption has reduced in similar terms...

Reshuffle does not increase Bawumia’s electoral fortunes – Political Analyst

GAPNEWS Reshuffle does not increase Bawumia’s electoral fortunes – Political Analyst Political analyst at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Jonathan Asante Otchere, has stated that the much-awaited ministerial reshuffle by President Akufo-Addo does not inure to the benefit of the NPP’s presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, going into the December 2024 elections. Dr Otchere made the assertion in an interview with Alfred Ocansey, host of TV3’s current affairs programme, Ghana Tonight, on Thursday, February 15. According to Dr Otchere, the President lost an opportunity to cut government expenditures. Civil society organisations and the public have criticised the government for its excessive spending leading to huge borrowing. “If you keep supplying members of your party to occupy all these positions that have become vacant so to speak, in actual fact, this particular decision by the President will not in any way affect positively the electoral fortunes of Dr Bawumia,” said the polit...