Govt Is A Major Beneficiary of Cedi Depreciation – John Kwakye

The government is benefiting from the fall of the Cedi against the Dollar, Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr John Kwakye has said.

The benefits, he explained, come in the form of  increased cedi-valued import taxes and oil proceeds.

In series of tweets, Dr Kwakye said “Government is a major beneficiary of the huge cedi depreciation in the form increased cedi-valued import taxes and oil proceeds.”

He added “The sharp cedi depreciation must be bringing windfall revenue to Gov’t from higher cedi-value import duties and oil proceeds. This should partly be offset by lower import volumes.”

The Cedi is selling at ¢11.2 to $1 as at Saturday, October 8, 2022 in some forex bureaus.

Some forex bureau operators expressed hope the the government and the the Bank of Ghana will institute strong measures to curtail the fall of the Cedi against the major trading currencies.

The BoG earlier announced that the $1.13billion Cocoa Syndicated loan which has been signed by the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) was going to help strengthen the currency.

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