Currency News for October 5th 2020

The Ghana Cedi, this week, fell across the board on both the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform and on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) against its three major trading partner currencies. The Cedi’s performance at the start of the week comes despite the local currency ending the third quarter of the year with a robust performance against the US Dollar. Year-to-date performance of the Cedi at the close of the third quarter of 2020 showed that the Cedi had depreciated modestly by 3.04% compared to a depreciation of 10.14%, 8.17%, and 4.44% over the same period in 2019, 2018, and 2017 respectively.

The Cedi will be expected to sustain its resilient performance against some of its major trading pairs in the last quarter of the year. The nation’s Gross International Reserves which currently stands that USD 8.56 billion by the close of August is expected to receive a boost from a USD 1.3 billion cocoa syndicated loan facility which should strengthen the hands of the central bank to continue to support the local currency on both the spot and the forward markets.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi declined by 0.02%, 0.94%, and 1.12% to open the week trading at GHC 5.7058, GHC 7.3992, and GHC 6.7241 from previous week’s trade values of GHC 5.7048, GHC 7.3300, and GHC 6.6498 against the US Dollar, the British Pound Sterling, and the Euro respectively. The Dollar hardened to build on previous week’s gains against the local currency after data showed that US nonfarm payrolls rose modestly whilst unemployment rate declined.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi weakened by 0.04%, 1.08%, and 0.97% to trade at GHC 5.8183, GHC 7.5406, and GHC 6.8401 at the start of the week from previous week’s trading figures of GHC 5.8158, GHC 7.4602, and GHC 6.7765 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The Cedi failed to post a comeback against the Pound as expectations of negative interest rate in the UK gradually wanes off.

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 5.7058 [October 5th, 2020] indicating a 3.05% 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 5.8183 [October 5th, 2020], representing a 2.14% year-to-date depreciation of the Cedi against the US Dollar.