Currency News [September 9, 2024]

After recording a choppy performance last week where the local currency was mixed against its three major trading partner currencies on both the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi opened this week nursing losses against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro on the BoG inter-bank platform.  On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi maintained its footing as it built on gains recorded against the Pound, it however suffered losses against the Dollar and the Euro.

The Cedi’s performance this week comes admit recent announcement by the finance minister that Ghana will finance its 2024/2025 cocoa beans purchasing season with syndicated loans from a consortium of foreign banks. This announcement came to allay earlier concerns that Ghana will only finance its cocoa purchases using domestic funding. Proceeds from the syndicated loan along with the recently approved USD 250 million World Bank loan under the Ghana Energy Sector Recovery Programme to boost the current energy sector challenges will be expected to calm expectations of forex demand pressures ahead of the December elections.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi plunged by 0.90%, 0.53%, and 0.70% to begin the week at trade values of GHS 15.3752, GHS 20.1369, and GHS 16.9874 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 15.2378, GHS 20.0316, and GHS 16.8687 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The Pound showed some resilience against some of its trading pairs boosted by expectations that the Bank of England will keep interest rates high for longer than its peers.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi plummeted by 0.19% and 0.11% against the Dollar and the Euro, having begun the week at trade values of GHS 15.7043 and GHS 17.3617 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 15.6751 and GHS 17.3431 respectively. The Euro soared against a basket of currencies helped by German industrial orders that unexpectedly rose in July, a considerable improvement over earlier forecast. Against the Pound, the Cedi edged up by 0.12% to trade at GHS 20.5700 at the week’s start from GHS 20.5957 at the start of the previous week.

The Cedi was quoted at GHC 11.8859 on the first trading day of the year against the Dollar and is currently being sold at GHS 15.3752 indicating a year-to-date (YTD) loss of 29.33% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also being quoted at GHS 15.7043 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) after opening the year at GHS 11.9945 indicating a YTD loss of 30.93%.