The Western North Communicator for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Sam Jerome, has stated that the performance of the Ghanaian Cedi must be monitored for about two weeks before the business community is asked to adjust the prices of goods and services in the country.
This comes after the Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) urged the business community to modify the prices of goods and services in response to the Cedi’s recent performance against the US dollar.
GUTA in a statement appreciated the efforts being made by the government and the Bank of Ghana to stabilize the Cedi and consequently asked the business community to adjust the prices of goods and services to reflect the gains being made by the national currency.
This year, the cedi to dollar exchange rate reached $1 to GH15, but it now trades slightly above GH12.50 to the dollar.
In the statement issued over the weekend, GUTA urged the Government to continue with more efforts to sustain the program and bring relief to the business community.
“As the value of the Cedi begins to appreciate, GUTA wishes to appeal to members of the business community to also adjust prices of goods and services accordingly, to make the consuming public feel the impact of this positive trend,” the statement added.
“We hope to see further and continuous appreciation of the Cedi and envisage that the economy will turn around in the shortest possible time,” GUTA said.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that the Ghana cedi was the best-performing currency against the US dollar last week.
The currency, having lost more than 50% of its value in the year, gained 10% against the dollar.
Read Also: GUTA urges businesses to adjust prices of goods to reflect Cedi gains
Reacting to this on Atinka TV‘s morning show, Ghana Nie with Ekourba Gyasi Simpremu, Mr Sam Jerome said although he was not against the call by GUTA, it should not be that with immediate effect, the business community must adjust the prices of goods and services.
“I agree with GUTA, you cannot say that they should reduce the prices today, but you can have a time frame such that you can decide to monitor the performance of the cedis for some weeks and when you realise that the dollar is depreciating for about two weeks, then you can project and say that about two weeks ago, those who imported goods at least benefited and so it has to reflect in the prices of goods and services.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori
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