Currency News for August 10th 2020

The Ghanaian Cedi gained momentum to post gains against its three major trading partner currencies on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), after several weeks of recording losses against the US Dollar, the British Pound Sterling, and the Euro. On the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi recorded its first gain against the Euro in seven weeks. It however failed to recover some of its losses against the Dollar and the Pound.

The Cedi showed signs of traction this week as world economies continue to gradually ease coronavirus linked restrictions, lifting investor confidence in emerging and developing economies. The Cedi’s performance this week also comes after recent data released by Ghana’s central bank showed a marginal drop in demand for forex at its forex forward rate auction. The last two forex auction results showed demand coming in excess of 2.85 times and 2.57 times (at the mid-July and end-July auctions respectively) against the over 3.00 times in periods before July.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi dipped by 0.02% and 0.12% to open the week trading at GHC 5.6824 and GHC 7.4343 against previous week’s trade values of GHC 5.6815 and GHC 7.4252 against the Dollar and Pound respectively. The Pound extended its weekly gains against the Cedi for the sixth consecutive time after the Bank of England at its latest sitting maintained its key rate unchanged as against expectations of sending UK rates into the negative. Against the Euro, the Cedi ended six weeks of losses as it appreciated by 0.38% to trade at GHC 6.6856 at the start of the week from previous week’s trade value of GHC 6.7111.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi rose by 0.18%, 0.16%, and 0.08% to begin the week trading at GHC 5.7897, GHC 7.5668, and GHC 6.8125 from previous week’s trade values of GHC 5.8003, GHC 7.5787, and GHC 6.8181 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The Cedi recovered part of previous week’s losses against the Dollar as US lawmakers struggle to reach an agreement on the cost of fiscal stimulus package that experts say is necessary to prevent the US from losing more momentum.

According to the Bank of Ghana inter-bank rates, the Ghanaian Cedi began the year 2020 at GHC 5.5370 [January 2nd, 2020] against the US Dollar and is currently selling at GHC 5.6824 [August 10th, 2020] indicating a 2.63% year-to-date depreciation. Similarly, on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Ghanaian Cedi traded at GHC 5.6961 [January 2nd, 2020] and is currently trading at GHC 5.7897 [August 10th, 2020], representing a 1.64% year-to-date depreciation of the Cedi against the US Dollar.