Dog days

THE cedi is in free fall, which means that living standards and economic growth in Ghana, one of Africa's rare economic successes, are both threatened. In January, 3,530 cedis were needed to buy a dollar. Six months on, the rate has nearly doubled to 6,400. That is, if dollars can be got at all from the banks. Most people have to hunt for them on the black market, where the rate is now closer to 7,000. The re-emergence of a busy black market, ten years after foreign exchange was liberalised, is an indication of how bad things are.