The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Elsie Addo Awadzi, has described as ‘temporary’ the continuous depreciation of the cedi and upward trend of the country’s headline inflation.
She believes that speculative behaviour by Ghanaians is working against attaining stability in the depreciation of the cedi and inflation.
“The current high inflation and cedi depreciation are temporary, and we must avoid speculative behaviour that only works against attaining stability sooner,” she said when speaking at the 21st Annual National RCBs CEO Conference themed “Positioning Rural Banking at the Centre of Financial Services Delivery in Ghana – The Role of Stakeholders”,
Mrs Addo Awadzi pointed out that the Central Bank is confident about the outlook of the Ghanaian economy as the BoG is closely working with the Finance Ministry to negotiate a sound economic reform programme supported by the IMF to stabilise and transform the Ghanaian economy.
The local currency has depreciated by more than 40 percent against its anchor currency, dollar since the start of this year.
As of last week Friday, October 14, 2022, the cedi had depreciated to a value of almost GHS 12 to $1.
The depreciation of the cedi is mainly due to the strengthening of the dollar which has recorded its highest appreciation against world currencies since the year 2000.
Inflation rate in September had accelerated much faster than expected to the highest level in almost 21 years reaching 37.2 percent.
By Vincent Kubi