{"id":605154,"date":"2019-04-05T00:36:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T00:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"
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Economist Kwame Pianim wants much more than talk in addressing the cedi\u2019s challenges following the Vice President\u2019s touting of the Akufo-Addo administration\u2019s handling of the\u00a0economy.<\/p>\n

At a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia used the Mahama administration as a yardstick to measure the NPP\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe data on the annual rate of depreciation of the cedi in recent years shows that the worst performance so far under the NPP government is the 8.4 per cent depreciation we saw in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat worst performance is better than the best performance under the previous government between 2012 and 2016,\u201d the Vice President said.<\/p>\n

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But in an interview,\u00a0Mr. Pianim said the Vice President\u2019s sentiment had no bearing on the pockets of Ghanaians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to contradict the Vice President. All that I am saying is that people don\u2019t eat words. They see the exchange rate reflect in their cost of living because prices will go up. Let\u2019s stop talking and focus on addressing the fundamentals. The fundamentals are supply and demand for foreign exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fundamentals affecting the cedi are largely influenced by Ghana\u2019s dependence\u00a0on imports.<\/p>\n

Mr.\u00a0Pianim also added his voice to calls on government to focus on building a manufacturing economy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWith the supply, we can do something about it by increasing exports, restructure the economy, which means expenditure controls, responsible fiscal policy and then we move. It doesn\u2019t matter which party is in power and we should stop political point scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The economist also commented on the potential bi-partisan probe of the recent cedi struggles saying there were no merits in a short term probe into the cedi.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting the Ghanaian to address any economic problem on a non-partisan basis; not political scoring basis is very useful and productive. Getting a commission to sit on the current spike in the cedi is a non-productive way of spending people\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He instead urged the government to \u201cfocus on expenditure controls, not revenue mobilisation either in debt or issuing bonds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n