Cedi redenomination argument continues

Deputy Finance Minister Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei has explained that there was no way the ministry would have captured the cedi redenomination policy in the 2007 budget.

Speaking to the dailyEXPRESS Dr. Akoto Osei said monetary policy issues are constitutionally the sole responsibility of the Bank of Ghana.

“Constitutionally, the minister of finance cannot talk about monetary policy. Such issues are strictly for the BoG to deal with. The decision to re-denominate is one of them and it is the BoG that prints and distributes currencies. That is why the re-denomination was not included in the government budget.”

The deputy finance minister advised Ghanaians especially the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) to think about Ghana first and not to politicize issues. According to him, the CJA is being unnecessarily political.

“They have to understand that from 2001 to 2006, this administration has been able to stabilize the economy. They should be speaking on facts and stop the unnecessary politicization.”

He was reacting to the CJA’s concerns among others that the President’s claim that as a result of the prudent management of the economy, the value of the cedi has so appreciated that by July this year, the cedi will exchange for the dollar at a rate of one to one is false.

Explaining, Dr. Osei said the group probably does not understand the economic issues. “They don’t understand the issues. Macro-economic stability means stability in the exchange rate as well. What the president meant was in reference to the macro-economic stability.”