Cedi Is Performing Better Against The Dollar Because Of Coronavirus Outbreak – Sammy Gyamfi

The Ghanaian cedi, appreciated marginally against some major foreign currencies; the dollar, euro and pound sterling last month, with financial analysts predicting that the local currency may perform better or could likely remain stable in the first quarter.

But a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has dismissed suggestions this is due to prudent economic measures rolled out by the current administration.

Sammy Gyamfi, Communications Officer for the opposition party, insists the cedi is currently doing well because of the outbreak of Coronavirus.

To him, the true state of the economy is what people feel in their pockets and that Ghanaians are really suffering because of the inept economic policies implemented by the Akufo-Addo led NPP government.

The Bank of Ghana, in its latest Summary of Economic and Financial Data noted that the cedi, early this year, appreciated 0.3% against the dollar, and also made a 1.9% gain on the British pound. The local currency also made a 2.3% gain on the Euro.

According to the Central Bank, the cedi's appreciation, was as a result of the setting of the Forex Development (FX) Committee by government through the Finance Ministry to help find stringent ways to stabilize the cedi.

However, commenting on the issue in an interview with Bernard Avle on CitiTV, the NDC Communications Officer pointed out that businesses are not importing goods from China due to the outbreak of Coronavirus which has taken pressure off the cedi, hence the reason why the local currency is doing well on the world market.

The reason why we are seeing some stability is not because of any economic intervention put in place by this government. 37% of our imports comes from Asia and I’m telling you that there no single economic intervention that is bringing about this stability.

"If we’re not importing and businessmen are not going to China like they use to do, the pressure on the Ghana cedi will go down and you’ll begin to see some stability. You can choose to celebrate that like the government is doing but very soon they will see their smoothness level,” he said.

Renowned world financial news, research and data organization Bloomberg, has rated the Ghanaian Cedi as the best-performing currency in the world against the United States Dollars.

The global financial and economic research experts added that the currency of the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer has strengthened 3.9% in 2020, the most among more than 140 currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

With Ghana concluding a series of meetings with international bond investors for a sale of as much as $3 billion in Eurobonds, Bloomberg quotes financial experts as saying that the Cedi will further strengthen.