The local currency, Ghana cedi, is experiencing a dwindling value against the US dollar.
He said, “Most of our trading and investments as a chamber hovers around the strength of the cedi. Anytime there is a fall, businesses become so much worried.
“It is the final consumer that suffers and it also affects the general economy of the country. There should be some level of interim measures. There must be some absorbers that have to be taken as a measure to make sure that at least the cedi is stabilized,” he said.
Between May and June this year, the local currency has experienced a 0.7 per cent depreciation and now sells at GHS4.44 to US$1.
“Because of the strong fundamentals that we have built which are serving as shock absorbers, when the shock comes; either it is spillover from the global economy or indigenous shock, we have built stronger fundamentals, that will anchor the currency and therefore the magnitude of depreciation,” he said.
“If the economy is doing so well and you have a bigger base, let’s look at your revenue that you (NPP) generated from that base in the first quarter of the year. When you inherited the economy in 2017 that you said it was worse, the worse economy delivered tax revenue, domestic revenue in the first quarter of 1.6 billion in January, 2.9 billion in February and 4.4 billion in March,” he said.
Also, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ben Boakye has intimated that, petroleum prices at the pumps will not experience any significant drop in the coming weeks, even though crude oil price continues to drop on the international market.
According to him, a continuous depreciation of the Ghanaian cedi against the dollar will leave prices at the pumps unchanged.
Petroleum prices change has a direct effect on the cost of doing business and prices of items in the country.