Ghana's dollar bonds slumped to 10% in 10 days, Bloomberg report
Government borrowing to shore up cedi not prudent, Dr. Daniel Seddoh
Financial expert and strategist, Dr. Daniel Seddoh has cautioned that government’s borrowing measures to prop up the local currency is not sustainable particularly in times of a global pandemic.
According to him, government must rather engage towards finding a long-term solution to addressing issues that impact on the economy.
Making his submission on the JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition on January 13, Dr Seddoh advised government to adopt an approach leading to an efficient production to export regime to sustain the economy.
“Now we must know that we’re competing with the rest of the world, so if we produce and we’re very expensive, we’re not competitive. So, we must find a way of being efficient.”
“And it’s the chicken and egg situation, government must give something and reduce the taxes, let people produce efficiently, export. Then you get the foreign currency. But if we don’t do that and we think people will bring money, when it’s time to take that money out then we‘re under pressure, that cycle that we’ve been running and that’s what we’re seeing.”
He continued, “And then we do a lot of imports, unnecessary imports. Then what is letting us encourage those imports is because we are generating tax revenues from the ports. So, we’ll have to tell ourselves we must give something to get what we’re looking for.”
The financial consultant and strategist also urged for government to find a balance between imports into the country and exports out of it. This, he believes will reduce pressure on the foreign exchange.
“Let’s say a lot of the people who consume foreign exchange are those who import. Can we get those groupings to also get themselves in exporting so that as they are consuming they’re generating? For me, if we can get that balance, it will reduce the pressure,” he pointed. Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS