The President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr. Humphrey Ayim-Darke,  has called on the media to avoid reportage that might fuel speculation on the foreign exchange market.

According to him, when the media reports on issues such as the free fall of the cedi and or the rising cost of fuel in a sensational manner, it encourages banks and others to hoard the dollar in order to reap benefits from the rising of the dollar.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition, he called on media personnel to mind how they “talk down the cedi.”

“With the current intervention from the BoG, one of the triggers that was worsening the plight was the exchange rate related effect, and that with this recent intervention from the BoG we realize there’s some calmness on the business front. And we also pray the media manages their drive of speculation and you chase every change in fuel price on the market,” he said.

He added, “Sometimes like what happened in the case of the exchange rate, at a stage we believe there was the theory of speculative activity feeding into it. In a day I could see the dollar jump from 8.1 to 8.4 and it was alarming.

“Whilst we are aware that some of the gentlemen that deal with exchange rate on the streets, they call them the Katakata boys, and they’re all over, the goro boys, some hoard it and at a stage we were even calling on the BoG governor to engage the commercial banks because some commercial banks trade, they hoard and trade with these Alhajis and therefore we feel that the governor should have found a way to crack down on these activities.

“And it was very speculative, they drive it, and you get a few of the media personnel and they’re on it.”

He is, however, hopeful that the cedi will stabilize soon in order for manufacturers to appropriately price their products.