Currency News [April 25, 2023]

The Cedi continued its sluggish performance against its three major trading partner currencies on the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) inter-bank trading platform after it traded lower at this week’s open against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro. On the Open Forex Market, however, the Cedi accrued some gains as it rose against its three major trading partner currencies to recover part of last week’s losses.

The Cedi’s diverging results at this week’s open on the BoG inter-bank platform and the Open Forex Market comes at a time when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Ghana’s Net International Reserve is projected to worsen to approximately three weeks of import cover. A Fitch Ratings downgrade of Ghana’s Long-Term Local-Currency (LTLC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to restricted default (RD) from ‘CCC’ similarly added to the Cedi’s woes. However, optimism that Ghana is likely to secure an IMF bailout next month kept the local currency at bay.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi traded down by 0.07%, 0.41%, and 0.67% to trade at GHS 10.9546, GHS 13.5848, and GHS 12.0262 at the week’s open from last week’s opening trade values of GHS 10.9473, GHS 13.5297, and GHS 11.9457 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The Pound gained against the Cedi after inflation in the UK rose to 10.1%, prompting an additional 0.25% policy rate hike.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi traded higher, edging up by 1.34%, 0.84%, and 0.82% from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 11.9592, GHS 14.8205, and GHS 13.1026 to open this week at trade values of GHS 11.7990, GHS 14.6962, and GHS 12.9958 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. Concerns over a US economic slowdown following a string of weak corporate earnings, softer-than-expected consumer confidence data, and the health of the US banking system weighed on the Dollar’s appeal against a basket of currencies.

The Cedi was quoted at GHC 8.5903 on the first trading day of the year against the Dollar and is currently being sold at GHS 10.9546 indicating a year-to-date (YTD) loss of 27.52% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also presently being quoted at GHS 11.7990 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) after opening the year at GHS 10.0825 indicating a YTD loss of 17.27%.