A deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng, has said the recent depreciation of the Ghana Cedi is not as dire as what was witnessed under the erstwhile Mahama administration.

The local currency, the cedi, is fast falling in value against the dollar and other major foreign currencies.

As at Tuesday, November 21, 2017, it was trading at GHS4.60p to the dollar.

Until this time, the highest rate at which it traded was recorded in February at GHS4.40p to the dollar.

It, however, gained some relative stability until a couple of weeks ago when it started to drop again.

This decline has been attributed to the demand for the dollar by importers and businesses as the festive season approaches.

Addressing the issue in an interview with Starr News’ Ibrahim Alhassan, Mr. Kwarteng acknowledged the challenges facing the local currency: “We all know the rate at which the cedi is performing against the other currencies and nobody can say that the cedi has been depreciating badly.”

He said: “when you inherit an economy that has so many pressures and investor confidence will need to be built over a period…you do not assume that the problems will go immediately.”

He expressed confidence that the government’s strategies will help arrest the plummeting currency saying “…as we go forward the cedi will be more stable than we are having now and indeed what we have now is more stable than what we had in previous years.”