Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has revealed that the Ghana cedi will depreciate further from January to June this year, before a possible IMF board approval in the second quarter of 2023.
“The cedi will inevitably depreciate further, from Jan to June. Before a possible IMF board approval in Q2, 2023,” he said in a social media post.
He predicted that Ghana’s economy will have one of the worst non-oil GDP growth rates due to the impact of the government’s debt restructuring measures and other harsh fiscal and monetary policies.
“The haircut on domestic bonds and Eurobond is expected to adversely impact the health of the banking sector, local businesses, and individuals! Also, Bilateral debt restructuring will lead to government’s foreign-financed projects being abandoned. Unemployment will worsen due to the freeze on employment, debt restructuring, poor business climate, and massive austerity. Ghana will default in the payment of interest and principal on domestic bonds, Eurobonds, and most of our bilateral loans in 2023,” he added.
He further stated that the events will be exacerbated by expected layoffs in the financial sector as a result of the debt restructuring, as well as expected layoffs in government foreign-financed projects.
He also indicated that the complete reversal of discount on import values of goods and vehicles coupled with the introduction of the 2.5% increase in VAT and other taxes on businesses will keep prices of goods and services “high, and, in some cases, higher than the current prices.”
“Also, the government’s policy of automatic adjustment of electricity tariffs will exacerbate the high cost of living in 2023. Inflation is expected to be above 30% for the most part of 2023,” he added.
According to Dr. Cassiel Forson, he does not see the government’s gold for oil policy-making any major impact on the price of petroleum products.
