BoG’s trading platform: cedi strikes ¢5.99; forex bureaux sell at ¢6.01 plus

The Ghanaian currency is just one pesewa away from hitting ¢6 to a dollar.

According to the Bank of Ghana’s official trading platform, the dollar is now selling at ¢5.99, which is almost 1% appreciation to the cedi. 

However, the forex bureaux are selling the local currency at ¢6.01 plus, while others have actually began selling a dollar for ¢6.00 about a month ago.

The demand for the dollar at this time of the year is driving the depreciation of the cedi against the world’s most important currency.

Some multinational firms have been buying dollars to repatriate dividend to their shareholders. At the same time, some non-resident investors have also been receiving dividends from their investments in largely public listed companies.

On the other hand, the opening up of the global economy which is stimulating aggregate demand and supply as well as imports and exports is also driving the demand for the US dollar.

This is happening, despite the intervention by the Bank of Ghana in the bi-weekly Forex Forward Auction that has aided the supply of dollars to the market to meet the rising demand. Perhaps, the Bank of Ghana would have to step up its game to increase supply of the dollar to the market.

Cedi forecast to end year within ¢6.14 and ¢6.32.

Fitch Solutions, research arm of ratings agency, Fitch and Databank Research forecast slightly different end year rate of the cedi to the dollar.

Whilst Fitch Solutions is projecting ¢6.32 pesewas to a dollar by the end of the year, Databank Research is predicting ¢6.14 pesewas, about 3 percentage point’s depreciation.

Fitch attributed a rebound of the global economy which will stimulate economic activities, as the rationale behind its end-year cedi to dollar rate of ¢6.32, a little above 4% depreciation.

Cedi depreciates only 0.6% to dollar in 7-months of 2021 – BoG

The Bank of Ghana said the Ghana cedi lost a paltry 0.6% to the US dollar.

According to the Central Bank, the cedi recorded 0.5% gain in April 2021, same as March 2021 and 0.2% appreciation in May 2021.

In June 2021, it however registered no change in value to the American ‘greenback’ but lost 0.6% in value to the world’s most important currency.

Databank on the other hand said the recent portfolio-induced pressure tampered with its earlier optimism. However, it believes the cedi should remain supported by the gross forex reserves of about $10.99 billion.

“We expect the annual international syndicated cocoa loan to provide an additional buffer in fourth quarter 2021 to sustain the stability of the cedi. The expected disbursement of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR) also bodes well for the gross forex reserves and the cedi in second-half of 2021.” Databank added