A Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi has assured that government will set a fixed exchange rate at the ports for the next three months to cushion traders who import goods into the country.
By this, the Ghana Revenue Authority will maintain a dollar rate for traders as the same level as the Bank of Ghana’s interbank rate.
The minister disclosed that the decision was reached after members of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) went on a strike and closed their shops over high cost of doing business at the ports.
“Government is not against traders. We want to make them very comfortable in business.”
Mr. Baafi spoke during the signing ceremony of the sectorial expansion of the COVID-19 response grant programme.
He explained that, fixing the exchange rate for long period at the Bank of Ghana rate will give traders some financial space to plan for the future.
He added that the move will also stabilize prices on the market and keep inflation in check for a long time.
Cedi performance
The Ghana cedi continued its free fall, losing value twice within a day to sell at ¢14.50 to one US dollar.
This translated to 5.45% depreciation in a day and 17.5% in four days of the week.
It began the day at ¢13.75 to the American ‘greenback’ but declined in value further to ¢14.50, according to quotations by the forex bureaus.
In nominal terms, the cedi has lost about 135% value to the world’s most important currency.
In real terms, the local currency has depreciated by about 55% to the dollar.
The fixed exchange rate is expected to provide better certainty for importers and help the government maintain low inflation.
The dollar is currently trading for over GH¢13 to the dollar, a situation the traders have lamented that is negatively affecting their businesses as it balloons the cost of importation and erodes their capital.
The cedi has depreciated significantly in recent months and at the beginning of the week, the cedi was noted as the world’s worst-performing currency.
That took its losses this year to more than 45 percent.
The forex challenges prompted the protest by traders, who planned to lock their shops for six days.
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