Dollar has now become scarce, people are giving up on it – Joe Jackson

A Financial analyst and Chief Operations Officer at Dalex Finance Mr Joe Jackson has revealed that people are finding it difficult in accessing Dollars to buy in Ghana at the moment.

To that end, he said, more people are giving up on the Dollar, forcing them to rely more on the Cedi to trade.

This is most likely to help stabilize the Cedi against the Dollar, he said.

Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 with Alfred Ocansey on Wednesday October 19, he said “It is a tough time but I expect that the rate will slow down. The rate will slow down because at this moment, it is very hard to find dollars to buy and most of the people we have given up on buying Dollars and are slowing.

“I am also expecting that the government will soon announce measures that will indicate to the market that it is serious about the reducing its expenditure.

“The measures, the biggest one is going to be debt restructuring, when that happens I expect the rate of the Cedi depreciation to slow down.”

Some forex bureaus are selling the local currency between ¢12.50 and ¢12.95.

The Cedi has been reported by Bloomberg to be the world’s worst-performing currency this year as investors continued to squeeze foreign capital to the west African country before a deal with the International Monetary Fund.

But the Bank of Ghana (BoG) said the fall of the Cedi against the Dollar and also the high inflation rate (32.7%) are temporary.

Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana Elsie Addo Awadzi expressed confidence of a positive outlook for Ghana’s economy.

The Bank of Ghana, she said is working closely with the Ministry of Finance and other key stakeholders to negotiate a sound economic reform programme supported by the IMF, to stabilise and transform our economy.

“We at the Bank of Ghana are confident about the outlook for our economy. The current high inflation and cedi depreciation are temporary, and we must avoid speculative behaviour that only works against attaining stability sooner,” Mrs Addo Awadzi stated.

The BoG earlier identified five key reasons for the woes of the local currency.

They were “The strength of the US dollar, Investor reaction to Credit Rating Downgrade, Non-Roll over of Maturing Bonds, The sharp rise in crude oil prices and impact on the Oil Bill, Loss of External Financing.”

The central bank went ahead to announce measures introduced to resolve the situation.

They were the “Gold Purchase Program to increase foreign exchange reserves; Special Foreign Exchange Auction for the Bulk Distribution Company’s (BDCs) to help with the importation of petroleum products; Bank of Ghana is entering into a cooperation agreement with the mining companies to provide BOG with the opportunity to buy gold as when it becomes available.

“The Bank of Ghana is supporting the banking sector with foreign currency liquidity to help meet the demand for external payments. The recently approved USD750,000,000 Afrexim loan facility by Parliament, once disbursed, will boost the foreign exchange position of the country and help restore confidence.”

The recently signed 1.13billion dollar Cocoa Syndicated loan was also a measure to shore up the Cedi, the BoG added.

Source: 3news.com|Ghana