Weekly Currency News Report – Week 06 [February 9, 2025]

A broad selloff in the global equity markets, mainly on the heels of concerns over inflated artificial intelligence spending, has seen traders, investors, and other financial market participants throng to safe-haven assets, with the Dollar and some precious metals largely benefiting from the selloff. On the Bank of Ghana inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi opened the week nursing losses across the board against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro. The local unit, however, posted mixed results on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), as it appreciated against the Dollar and the Pound but failed to post any recovery against the Euro for the fifth consecutive week.

Despite the Cedi’s underlying recent hurdles, with the local unit losing as much as 6.09% against the Pound on the BoG inter-bank trading platform over the first six weeks of the year, it is expected that a slate of impressive data releases from the central bank should calm the market’s nerves, curb any near-term speculation, and boost the Cedi’s outlook. According to the central bank after the conclusion of its first monetary policy sitting in 2026, Ghana ended 2025 with a provisional current account surplus of USD 9.1 billion, up from USD 1.5% in 2024, a strong provisional balance of payments surplus of USD 3.98 billion, and a Gross International Reserves (GIR) of USD 13.8 billion, equivalent to 5.7 months of import cover as against a GIR of USD 9.1 billion over the same period last year. Although these strong numbers depict the ability of the central bank to render support to the local currency, concerns over capital flight by offshore investors following the payment of coupons on the DDEP bonds later in the month may trim the full impact of any intervention.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi lost by 0.27%, 0.43%, and 1.10%, having been exchanged for GHS 10.9955, GHS 15.0363, and GHS 13.0876 at the start of the week from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 10.9655, GHS 14.9712, and GHS 12.9452 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro, respectively. The Euro rose against a basket of trading partner currencies, benefiting from a Bloomberg report that the Eurozone offered the best alternative in terms of depth and liquidity to the US Treasury market.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi traded up by 0.05% and 0.30% after it was offered for GHS 10.9944 and GHS 14.9985 at the start of the week from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 11.0000 and GHS 15.0436 against the Dollar and the Pound, respectively. The Pound weakened against a set of trading pairs, hurt by investors weighing the political crisis facing the UK prime minister and the rising wagers of further interest rate cuts. Against the Euro, however, the Cedi plunged by 0.30% trade at GHS 13.0564 at the start of the week from last week’s opening trade quote of GHS 13.0169.

The Cedi was quoted at GHC 10.5053 on the first trading day of the year against the Dollar and is currently trading at GHS 10.9955, indicating a Year-to-Date (YTD) depreciation of 4.67% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also currently quoted at GHS 10.9944 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), having opened the year at GHS 10.5253, indicating a YTD loss of 4.46%.