Cedi depreciation against US dollar has improved under NPP, compared to NDC - Dr. Bawumia

Mahamudu Bawumia has asserted that the depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the US dollar has shown improvement now as compared to its value under the previous John Mahama administration.

He argued that the value of the local currency in the past seven years, under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been relatively more stable than previously.

Speaking in an interview with AfricaWatch, he stated that the depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar has been rather sustainable despite the economic challenges being experienced in the country.

The point is that notwithstanding the major global and domestic challenges we have been through, it is remarkable that whereas the exchange-rate depreciation between 2009-2016 averaged 13.9%, between 2017-2023 it averaged 13.1%.

He continued, “The data shows that from 2009-2016, the cedi depreciated cumulatively by 71.1%, and between 2017 and 2023, the cumulative depreciation was 64.6%.

So, whether you look at the average or the cumulative, the depreciation of the cedi has been lower under our government, notwithstanding the severe global shocks we have endured.

We saw that between 2017 and 2021 when the fundamentals in terms of the fiscal deficit, inflation, GDP growth, external balances, and international reserves were fairly strong, the exchange rate was relatively stable.