The Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei-Asare, says the government is hoping to quickly pull itself together and work very hard to pursue its fiscal policies to regain the confidence of the international financial community.
According to her, the recent downgrades by international rating agencies initially stem from the delay in the passage of the government’s fiscal policies at the start of the year.
She explained that the contention with the e-levy in Parliament had undermined the confidence the international financial community had in the government, leading to withdrawal of investments and the chain of downgrades that have happened since then.
“…because clearly if a major revenue measure like the e-levy we were having problems with its passage then clearly it in a way undermines your budget. So that kick started the downgrade of the credit ratings and I must say that that has really affected us and affected our confidence on the global front and then domestically as well. And so that has also affected the strength of our cedi,” she said on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition.
Commenting on the fast depreciation of the cedi against the dollar, she stated that aside from the difficult economic situation the country is in, the dollar has also generally been appreciating as well.
She noted that the dollar in recent times has appreciated against major currencies including the euro and pound sterling.
“Truly, I must say that the dollar has gained – when you compare the dollar to the pound and to the euro, clearly you see that the dollar has made some gains, even the pound has depreciated and so has the euro,” she said.
“But that notwithstanding some has to do with our revenue measures initially, but I must say even as we have passed some of these measures, we are hoping that quickly we’ll put ourselves together and work very hard to pursue the policies that we’re pursuing to make sure that we bring back that confidence that is causing so much speculation and resulting in some of these downgrades,” she added.
Ms. Osei-Asare said government will do all in its power to reduce the speculation causing the depreciation of the cedi.
“We’ll quickly work hard together because now it is the confidence that we’re hoping to bring back and that will reduce the speculation and will also help with the cedi depreciation against some of the major foreign currencies,” she said.
Source: Myjoyonline