A deputy Minister of Finance Mona Quartey has rejected assertions that the country’s currency will end the year at about 6 cedis to the dollar.
[contextly_sidebar id=”3uUooLdd5gsQx0xiogmmyPwVT5n7un2l”]Her comments follow heightened debate on the cedi’s performance and government’s continuous difficulty in stabilizing the local currency.
Some stakeholders have predicted the cedi will close the year at between 5 and 6 cedis to a dollar.
The Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Financial Services, Ken Thompson for example earlier projected that the cedi will continue to fall against major trading currencies and close at 6 cedis to a dollar by close of year.
According to him the demand for dollars is still higher than supply.
The cedi this year alone has depreciated in excess of 25%.
The central bank’s intervention of pumping between 20 and 50 million dollars daily depending on the demand to halt the free fall of the cedi initially did not yielded the needed results initially.
However the cedi begun making some significant gains against major foreign currencies including the dollar, British pound and Euro some two weeks ago.
Despite the impressive recovery there are fears the cedi will go back to its losing ways due to the central bank’s approach in dealing with the cedi’s recovery.
But a deputy Minister of finance Mona Quartey rejects the projections.
“I don’t share in their assertion and they are entitled to their own opinions and the market will determine the price of the cedi and demand and supply will determine that price, what we hope is the stabilization of the price. Stabilization of the cedi is our goal and that is what we want, is not about too much of strengthening of the cedi or anything but just the stabilization of it.”
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana