Economist with the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research, Professor Peter Quartey has stated that the actions and inactions of economic players in Ghana is making the black market flourish.
Speaking to Journalists on the sideline of the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, Professor Peter Quartey urged the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to regulate the operations of the black market in the country to help ensure that Ghana’s exchange rate regime is sustainable.
Also, Prof Quartey in a presentation enumerated the cedis challenges and also provided a number of solutions.
He presented short, medium and long term measures that can help alleviate the perpetual decline of the Ghana Cedi to the major world currencies.
On the short term, he said enforcement of Bank of Ghana’s recently introduced foreign exchange regulations would help. He also advocated tracking the demand for the foreign exchange in the forex bureaus as is done in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya where access to foreign currency is highly regulated.
On the medium to long term, Prof. Quartey mentioned that growing the export base in Ghana will ensure the much-needed supply of forex but advised that the country should not just produce, but bear in mind the quality of goods.
He argues that some of these together with other measures such as strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals and effective management of short term spikes/slippages would all things being equal ensure the exchange rate is on a sustainable trajectory.
He submitted that the exchange rate can be said to be sustainable “when your real exchange rate does not deviate significantly from the equilibrium exchange rate, in other words; if there is no intervention at all, if you allow demand and supply to determine your exchange rate then we can say it is sustainable”
Listen Prof Peter Quartey speaks on how ‘black market’ affect the Ghana cedi
