Globally, the Dollar has been losing strength – Prof Peter Quartey

3 News

Fri 09th May, 2025 14:03

Globally, the Dollar has been losing strength against most currencies, the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Professor Peter Quartey, has said.

For instance, he explained, in January, it was 0.784 to the Pound. but is now 0.74 to the Pound, an indication globally the Dollar is not doing well.

Asked whether the stability is sustainable, Prof Peter Quartey said on the News Central on TV3 Friday May 9 that “Currently, it can be sustainable if what has been proposed and what the Bank of Ghana is doing is also sustainable.

“A lot of those things are also driven by speculations, people speculate a lot when they lose faith in the local currency; they store their wealth in other forms, either gold or houses, real estate or other currencies. Once the economy is stable, why not, they will hold the Cedi. So it can be sustainable, depending on domestic policies.”

Prof Quartey further stated that he knew that the Cedi was going to be stable, but he did not expect this scale of appreciation.

He explained that his projection of a strong local currency was based on the fact that Ghana was still under a programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was also sure to global happenings, as well as the domestic policies, he said.

He said, “I saw it coming, but not on the scale we are seeing, given that we are under an IMF programme and then also given what is happening in the global scene, I expected the Cedi to stabilise. Of course, given what locally we have been doing in terms of what the Bank of Ghana itself is doing, continuing the legacy of this Gold For Oil and also Gold For Reserves, it is really strengthening the Cedi.

“Of course, the Bank of Ghana has been engaging stakeholders and key players. I think that is what you need to carry the people along, given also to the fiscal authorities, what the prudent fiscal measures that are being proposed are. All of these bring confidence. The posture of the president himself, trying to assure Ghanaians that things are going to be better, the posture that there is going to be prudent spending, to ensure that we minimise waste, all of these reduce speculations.

“Let us also not forget that globally, the dollar has been losing strength; in January, it was 0.784 to the Pound.

“Now it is 0.74 to the Pound, it tells you globally the Dollar is not doing well, also because of the geo tensions, so what is happening now is due to global happenings and also due to domestic policies .”

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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