BoG’s Zakari Mumuni defends tough policies behind cedi stability

First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr Zakari Mumuni says the recent appreciation of the cedi is no fluke.

He insists it is the result of deliberate and disciplined policy choices, especially at the domestic level.

“This is maybe unprecedented,” Dr. Mumuni said on PM Express Business Edition last Thursday.

“If you look at the data from when we started the floating rate regime to now, this is the only time within the first four or five months that we have had this level of strength in the Ghana cedi.”

According to him, the local currency has appreciated by 12.2% since the beginning of the year.

“Same time last year, we had depreciated by about 13%. So this is a complete reversal of what the situation was,” he noted.

Dr Mumuni acknowledged that both domestic and external factors are at play. But he stressed that the bulk of the gains are rooted in internal decisions.

“You will see that the domestic factors really have more weight in this case, in this performance, than the external factors.”

At the heart of these gains is a controversial yet deliberate monetary policy stance.