Professor of Applied Economics at the John Hopkins University in the USA, Steve Hanke has taken a swipe at President Akufo-Addo’s administration, saying, its economic mismanagement has led to the poor performance of the cedi and inflation.

According to him, inflation in Ghana is presently at a stunning 65.75%, whilst the cedi has depreciated by about 47.48% since January 1, 2022.

In a tweet, Professor Hanke, who is a hard critic of the government said, “By measure, the Ghana cedi has depreciated 47.48% against the US dollar since January 1, 2022. Thanks to Akufo-Addo’s Economic Mismanagement, the cedi is junk”.

He again said “Today I accurately measure inflation in Ghana at a stunning 65.67% per year, 1.46* the Ghana Statistical Services’ phony official rate”.

He concluded that “the GSS just continues to churn out rubbish”.

UK-based, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in its latest report is predicting a 30% depreciation of the cedi to the dollar in 2023.

Disclosing this in its 2023 Country Report on Ghana, the UK based firm said it expects the cedi to depreciate significantly this year.

“We now expect the currency to weaken to ¢12.46:US$1 at end­ 2023 (from ¢10.95:US$1 as at mid­-April).”

“We expect inflation to rise further on average in 2023, to 38.1%, despite a slowdown in monthly inflation over most of the period, with inflation having declined to a (still very high) annualised 45% in March 2023, from 52.8% in February 2023”, it added.