{"id":603096,"date":"2019-03-28T20:11:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T20:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"
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The Ranking Member on Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee, Ato Forson is against government\u2019s call for a bipartisan probe into the annual depreciation of the cedi.<\/span><\/p>\n

While hailing government\u2019s success in rescuing the fast-running cedi against its major trading currency, the dollar, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta during a presentation in Parliament Thursday, bemoaned the consistent depreciation the local currency.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This happens every year and\u00a0government, especially the President Nana<\/span>\u00a0Akufo-Addo regime wants to find a lasting solution to the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has tasked the Finance Minister to find this and fast. Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed during his presentation that a bi-partisan committee will be set to do just that.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mr Ofori-Atta wants a bipartisan committee to investigate the cedi<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

He said, \u201cthe president has directed that I investigate the structural causes for the depreciation of the cedi and to propose measures to address the situation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor and I will put a bipartisan committee together to proceed immediately,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But Mr Forson, who is a former Deputy Finance Minister says that approach is completely needless.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He told Joy News\u2019 Evans Mensah on Top Story that although the Minority are prepared to offer their competence when called on, the move is \u201ca waste of time and resources.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For him, it will be a surprise for <\/span>government<\/span><\/span><\/span> or anyone to say they do not know the causes of the depreciating cedi, so much so that a committee would have to be set to find that out.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat we are seeing is only the symptom, not the disease. We know what the disease is and in <\/span>fact,<\/span><\/span><\/span> anyone else in this country knows what is causing the depreciation of the cedi,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cedi<\/span><\/p>\n

The cedi\u2019s current status culled from xecurrencyconverter.com<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Ajumako-Anyan-<\/span>Asiam<\/span><\/span><\/span> MP said the two major problems facing the country which is leading to the persistent depreciation of the cedi are a lack of investment in the right sectors of the economy and excessive borrowing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not investing heavily in areas of agriculture, areas that we cannot easily import but we are rather investing so much in consumption.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAgain we are borrowing too much. Foreign participation in our country is so much that all the forex that we end up collecting, a chunk of them end up being used in servicing loans. The amount of money we use in serving our debt is itself is a problem for us as a country,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

He does not think the committee is a solution to the problem and that \u201cthe statement itself is not well thought through\u2026it will not solve the problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/span><\/p>\n

But Chairman of Finance Committee Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah disagrees with his colleague.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the bipartisan committee should not be seen as the only solution to the problem but one of many.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his view, a currency cannot depreciate so much in a <\/span>week<\/span>\u00a0and appreciate so much in another. It does not mean the fundamentals are <\/span>weak<\/span><\/span><\/span>, as the Vice President Dr Mahamadu BAwumia once said, it only means something is wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a\u00a0 currency appreciates as it did last week in a matter of a week, that defies economic theories. A currency that had been depreciating so fast\u2026we shouldn\u2019t be seeing these swings. That is volatility, the fluctuation, it is not normal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo there must be something that we have not averted our minds to in the past and I think this is time for us to look to the data and really understand the happenings of the economy all over again,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n