I feel neutral about the IMF bailout – Dr. Asuming
Economist, Dr Patrick Assuming says he is not too excited about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout because the conditions are temporary.
According to him, the current cedi appreciation is not surprising because the IMF deal compelled speculators who were hoarding the dollars to exchange it for cedis.
Speaking on Joy Prime, Dr Assuming stated that this is just a restoration of Ghana’s previous losses.
“So let’s not put it as if the cedi has gained, I mean compared to 2 weeks ago yes but from where we started the year this is more or less a correction recovering some of the losses from earlier in the year”, he said on Wednesday.
The economist says he doubts that the local currency will “even get back to where we were at the start of the year.”
“Don’t forget that before all these economic news and movements we were sitting around six and half, my sense is that we will definitely not return to six and half, the best we could get all the way to will be 9 or 8 but we will not even get back to where we were at the start of the year,” Dr. Assuming indicated.
However, he believes there could possibly be a depreciation of the cedi if the conditionalities are not followed religiously.
On Tuesday, December 12, the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on a three-year $3 billion with the government.
This initiative is to help Ghana manage its economic crises and huge debts.
Source: Ghana News
