Cedi stability on prices of goods: The excuses will not wash at this point – COPEC tells GUTA

Executive Secretary of Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah has disagreed with the Ghanaian Union of Traders (GUTA) that it will take at least three months more for the stability of the cedi to reflect on prices of goods in the country.

Despite the stability of the cedi for some months now, prices of goods remain unchanged in the markets.

In an interview with TV3 on News Central, May 9, GUTA President, Dr. Joseph Obeng argued that the market forces also determine prices of goods for Ghanaian consumers, hence the cedi stability will not within a short period automatically cause a reduction in prices of goods.

Dr. Obeng noted that some importers will quickly respond by reducing prices while it will take a while for retailers to also pass on the reduction to Ghanaian consumers.

However, Duncan Amoah believes that whichever pricing model is applied, whether the forward forecast model or the forth pricing model, there must be a reflection of the decline of the dollar on prices of goods.

“I think that the excuses at this point will not wash for most Ghanaians like myself. For petrol prices, we do deal with some of the indexes.

“And so, I am a bit surprised that some of the GUTA folks are trying to rationalize that it will have to take three months. That clearly, I don’t think we should allow that to stand,” he noted on TV3’s News Central on May 9, 2025.

He explained that: “forward forecast allows petroleum importation players to sometimes project that by the time I’m done selling my consignment, the cedi could be trading to the dollar at GHC17 so I would need to factor that into my pricing.”

“Forth pricing says that what rate is today, you apply that today. Whichever of the two you would apply today, prices ought to come down further,” he added.

COPEC says it will engage to ensure that the decline of the dollar reflect on fuel prices.

“By Monday, we will also be dealing with the BVDs to ensure that whatever it is that the Ghanaian consumers would want to get at this time, they would get it,” he assured.

Recently, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Johnson Asiama said that the stability of the local currency was not because the central bank is directly intervening with its dollar reserves.

Dr Asiama said that a number of measures have been introduced, which are resulting in stability.

He explained that the BoG is currently implementing some foreign exchange market reforms to shore up the Cedi.

According to data from the Bank of Ghana, the Cedi had appreciated by 2.76% against the dollar as of April 2025. The Cedi has experienced one of its most sustained periods of stability in recent years.

“The stability you are seeing now is not because we are intervening, it is not because we are selling reserves for stability, no. Remember our reserves programmes actually go up by the day, we are building more and more reserves. All that we are doing is strengthening the surge in inflows, a number of foreign exchange market reforms are being implemented,” he said.

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