Business News of Thursday, 14 March 2019

Source: thebftonline.com

Ofori-Atta expects cedi recovery in two weeks

ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta says he is upbeat about the turnaround of the depreciating Ghanaian cedi against the major currencies in some few weeks.

According to the Finance Minister, the reversal and stability is expected to recur in the next two or so weeks given the capital inflows of about US$900m coming in from Cocobod proceeds and the Eurobond.

“I am very confident the reversal is going to occur, we have about US$300m from Cocobod, another US$600m from Cocobod in about a month or. Today we launched our Eurobond officially about US$3 billion, that should close in the next couple of weeks.

In the interim we have gone through parliament with a bridge agreement US$500 to 750m, to ensure a smooth transition going forward” he told B&FT in an interview in parliament on Wednesday.

Since the beginning of February 2019, the cedi has been depreciating significantly and is currently hovering around US$5.3 to US$5.5 – a situation business associations have described as worrying.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has once again signalled that it will inject a whopping US$800 million into the system to shore-up one of the fastest depreciating currencies in the world; the cedi.