The local currency is regaining its strength against the major foreign currencies, Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has said.

This, Dr Bawumia said, means the economy fundamentals are strong.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Kumasi on Tuesday, 11 February 2020, Dr Bawumia said: “Thankfully, this year, the cedi is performing quite well and is currently the best-performing currency in the world against the US dollar (with an appreciation of 3.4% in January) thanks to the excellent management of the Bank of Ghana.”

He added: “The data shows that Ghana’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong. Indeed, the strength of Ghana’s fundamentals was confirmed recently by Moody’s Ratings, which changed Ghana’s sovereign rating from B3 with a stable outlook to B3 with a positive outlook. This is unprecedented for an election year. Standards and Poors also upgraded Ghana’s sovereign credit rating from B- to B with a stable outlook last year. This was the first upgrade by S&P for Ghana in 10 years! This is a strong affirmation of the positive assessment by the international financial markets of Ghana’s economic fundamentals.

“In fact, at the time the Kufuor government left office, Ghana’s rating with S&P was B+. This fell in the 8 years of NDC’s administration to B-. And the President Akufo-Addo’s government is bringing this rating back up again. This is clearly a testament of the solid polices and reforms yielding fruits.

“Just last week, Ghana successfully issued the longest-dated Eurobond ever by a sub-Saharan African country with investors placing $15 billion of orders for Ghana’s 41-year Eurobond. The 7-year Bond issued has attracted the lowest coupon rates ever for Ghana at 6.375% compared with the 9.25% Ghana had to pay for a similar Eurobond issued in 2016. This is a massive show of confidence in the Ghanaian economy by investors and just yesterday, Bloomberg Ghana highlighted Ghana as the top candidate for an economic leap in Africa.”