Currency News [August 25, 2025]

Moves by Ghana’s central bank to sanitize the local currency space last week failed to yield any interim result as the Cedi began the week nursing losses across the board against its three major trading partner currencies. The Cedi’s performance follows similar weaknesses observed over the past two weeks, where the local unit remained pressured against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro. The Cedi’s struggling performance comes amidst concerns of weakening forex supply, whilst demand is seen to be on the rise as businesses and importers prepare for the upcoming festive season.

Last week, the central bank, in a release, sought to tighten its grip on the domestic forex market, directing banks to stop foreign currency cash withdrawals by large corporates unless such withdrawal requests are backed by equivalent deposits. The directive warned that the “practice exerts avoidable pressure on the foreign exchange market and undermines efforts to ensure stability”. The statement further added that “banks must retain proper documentation to confirm the source of funds for every payout.” Although this directive is expected to calm the ongoing demand pressures for forex, analysts fear the payment of interest on the DDEP bonds will mount further pressures on the local unit as offshore investors may wish to repatriate their investment proceeds.

On the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi traded down by 1.39%, 1.18%, and 1.37% to open the week at trade values of GHS 10.9555, GHS 14.7789, and GHS 12.7823 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 10.8054, GHS 14.6067, and GHS 12.6094 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro, respectively. The Pound rose against some of its trading pairs, aided by a stronger-than-expected UK purchasing manager’s index survey, which showed economic growth accelerating to a 1-year high at 53.0 in August against economists’ expectations of 51.0.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi lost by bigger margins at 1.67%, 1.35%, and 1.63%, having been sold for GHS 11.0116, GHS 14.8571, and GHS 12.8583 at the start of the week from the previous week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 10.8309, GHS 14.6595, and 12.6525 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro, respectively. The Euro added to its gains against the Cedi despite losing against some of its international peers, having been hurt by the release of disappointing growth data from the bloc’s dominant economy, Germany, which reported a contraction of 0.3% in the second quarter of 2025.

The Cedi was quoted at GHC 14.7074 on the first trading day of the year against the Dollar and is currently being sold at GHS 10.9555, indicating a Year-to-Date (YTD) gain of 25.51% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also presently being quoted at GHS 11.0116 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) after opening the year at GHS 14.7134, indicating a YTD gain of 25.16%.