The president of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Mr. George Ofori, has described the current state of exchange rates from the major international currencies into the Ghana cedi as dangerous to Ghana's economy.
This was as a result of complaints made by some affected traders who say they are currently feeling the pinch of the high exchange rate.
The local currency was stable last year but has dropped sharply within the last few weeks. Despite the intervention of the Bank of Ghana with the injection of some US dollars into the market to stabilize the currency, the decline has still continued.
But in an interview with Joy News, the president of GUTA, Mr. George Ofori, stressed that the government and the Central Bank have no excuse to the current free fall of the cedi.
According to him, the purchasing power of people weakens if salaries remain unchanged and exchange rates from cedi to the major foreign currencies or prices of goods gallop, because people cannot procure the items they want on the market.
Joy News investigations indicate that currently, one needs over GH¢1.70p to buy the same US dollar that one could have bought with GH¢1.60p last December.
An auto-mobile spare-parts trader (name untold) told Joy News, Wednesday that the sudden change has really affected them.
He told Joy News some of them who trade in German parts buy their goods in Euro before selling them in the Ghana cedis, but since the drastic increase in the exchange rate and the high cost of goods and services on the market, buyers do not have the purchasing power to buy due to low wages and salaries received from their employers.
He further explained that, “….If I buy goods at £10, the selling price over here is GH¢20 but the cost price is now almost GH¢22; including the import duty and everything…. We don’t usually fix profits so, we can sell with just a small margin…. We are selling even below the cost price because the demand is there but people haven’t got the money to buy.
"For instance, if I buy an item at GH¢ 22 and am supposed to sell it at GH¢20… I'm loosing…if you increase your goods…people are not going to buy them.” We are really suffering he added.
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