Dr Richmond Atuahene, a Banking consultant, has urged the government to ensure that the exchange rate is subjected to intermittent shocks to the country’s terms of trade and overall net external position.
Dr Atuahene said this could be achieved by diversifying the economy and making more investments in the non-cocoa sector as well as aggressively tracing, tracking, capturing, and monitoring foreign remittances in the country.
The Banking Consultant, who was speaking at the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) Dialogue Series, said whenever Ghana’s fiscal and monetary policies were relatively loose, the exchange rate tended to experience large depreciations.
He said the country should also increase local production, and cut down on imports so that there would be enough foreign exchange in the country.
He said the government’s policy of modernizing agriculture and creating an enabling business environment for the private sector to speed up the process of agriculture industrialization required investment and incentives to improve economic infrastructure, reduce business costs and regulatory barriers, and develop new export growth poles.
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On his part, Dr. Clement Osei Amoako, President of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry GNCCI, said the forum aimed to facilitate discussions on strategies to mitigate the adverse impact of the rapid depreciation of the cedi on business operations.
He urged the government to treat the depreciation of the local currency as an emergency and expedite efforts to stabilize it and clamp down on speculation.
The Chamber called on the Bank of Ghana to intensify its efforts to improve market conduct and instil sanity in the foreign exchange market.
He said individuals who were hoarding the forex were also encouraged to desist and help slow down the rate of depreciation.
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Story by: Osei Akoto (Teacher Kojo) #Ahotoronline.com
