BoG, MoF to review foreign exchange retention policy for multinationals
The Central Bank together with the Ministry of Finance (MoF), will soon be reviewing the country’s foreign exchange retention policy for multinationals, particularly those in the extractive sectors.
The move by government as announced by the Finance Minister during Thursday’s press briefing, is to retain foreign exchange earnings from the sale of Ghana’s resources.
Also know as “Exchange Control” the policy is expected to help government hold enough foreign reserves to mitigate the depreciation of the cedi against the dollar and other major trading currencies.
Per the Bank of Ghana’s March 2022 Summary of Economic and Financial Data, the depreciation of the cedi against the dollar at mid-March 2022 stood at 14.6%, against the Euro and Pound, it was 11.6% each.
Aside the review of the foreign exchange retention policy, the Finance Minister further announced that government is close to concluding an external financing arrangement that will see it receive $2bn in the next 2-6 weeks.
The $2bn external financing, the Minister noted, will mainly be used for liability management for this year.
Part of it, however, will be used in fighting the depreciation of the local currency.
Government to check depreciation of cedi with $2bn injection into the economy
Government has revealed plans to pump some $2bn into the economy to mitigate the depreciation of the cedi against the world’s major trading currencies.
According to government, this forms part of measures adopted by President Akufo-Addo to salvage the economic crisis in the country as well as mitigate the hardships being experienced by the Ghanaian populace.
Amidst the growing depreciation of the cedi and the recent increments in fuel prices and prices of general goods, the government held a crunch cabinet meeting to find solutions to the raging economic challenges.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the Jubilee House highlighted four measures government has approved during its cabinet meeting to cushion Ghanaians amidst the economic hardships.
These include; the reopening of the country’s land borders within two weeks, Government cuts salaries of appointees by up to 30%, the Bank of Ghana increases policy rate to 17% and government to pump $2billion to rescue cedi.
