Joe Jackson, the Director of Strategy and Business Operations at Dalex Finance, has charged the government with critically analyzing the factors that have led to the cedi’s continuous depreciation and proposing appropriate solutions to the causes.
According to experts, the cedi is now one of Africa’s worst-performing currencies. The cedi has depreciated by about 14 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to the Bank of Ghana.
Speaking on Citi TV’s The Big Issue, Joe Jackson warned that any attempt to inject dollars into the economy to deal with the cedi depreciation would exacerbate the situation.
“I don’t believe there has been a surge in demand for goods and services that has caused the cedi to fall in value.” Any attempt to help this issue by simply dumping dollars into the market may actually exacerbate it. What I believe should happen is that we agree on how to restore confidence in the market, because what is happening is due to a lack of confidence in Ghana’s economic management.”
Ghana’s economy is in turmoil as a result of a number of challenges, including rising inflation and the rising cost of fuel.
The country’s currency is also depreciating, particularly against the US dollar, and the country’s public debt has reached unsustainable levels.
Various suggestions for how to salvage the situation have been made.
According to Joe Jackson, the government’s spending must be reduced in order to restore economic stability.
He stated that due to the high cost of the Free Senior High School policy, it must be the first to be considered.
“We need to address some of the major budget items, the most important of which is Free SHS.” What are the other issues that arise aside from salaries and interest payments? We are unable to reduce salaries. So cut spending, and the first one is Free SHS. “All of those consumption-based items must go,” he stated.
Source: Citinews
