Kanawu Radio number 1 news portal
Business News of Thursday, 29 February 2024
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
Abena Osei-Asare
Abena Osei-Asare, the Minister of State Designate for the Finance Ministry, has attributed the reduction in the country’s inflation rate from 54.1 percent to 23.5 percent in January 2023 to the gold-for-oil policy by the government.
The policy was introduced with the aim of addressing Ghana’s dwindling foreign currency reserves and the demand for dollars by oil importers, which was weakening the local cedi and increasing living costs.
During the debate on the 2024 State of the Nation Address by President Akufo-Addo, Abena Osei-Asare, highlighted the successes of the intervention.
She noted that the gold for oil program had improved the strength of the cedi and helped curb the sharp depreciation of the cedi against major currencies in November 2022.
“Mr. Speaker, this gold for oil programme improved the strength of the Cedi, and we all saw how the Cedi depreciated against major currencies in November 2022. It went as high as 54 percent to the Dollar and Mr. Speaker, due to this programme, we have seen the Cedi gain some strength and as we speak, from February 2023 to December 2023, the Cedi depreciated by just 9 percent.
“Coupled with the improvement in the strength of the Cedi and inflation with our debt and fiscal sustainability programme, we saw our growth numbers going up.”
