Currency News [November 6, 2023]

The recently observed weaknesses in the local currency intensified at this week’s opening as the Cedi began the week nursing losses against its three major trading partner currencies on the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform. The Cedi similarly sustained losses against the Pound and the Euro on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) but rose against the Dollar to pare some of its recent losses.

After maintaining a steady trajectory over the past few months, the Cedi has come under renewed pressures following delays in expected inflows which is likely to boost Ghana’s reserves to meet the rising demand for forex by importers and businesses. Key among these expected inflows includes a USD 600.0 million disbursement from the International Monetary Fund under the sovereign’s programme with the Fund and a USD 1.2 billion cocoa syndicated loans facility to fund cocoa purchases for the crop season. The seeming lack of clarity as to when Ghana is likely to receive these inflows continues to hurt the local currency’s outlook.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi traded down by 0.31%, 2.23%, and 1.47% from last week’s opening trade values of GHS 11.4770, GHS 13.9515, and GHS 12.1879 to open this week trading at GHS 11.5129, GHS 14.2633, and GHS 12.3674 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. Although the Euro gained against the Cedi, it fell largely against a set of major peers after German industrial production fell more than expected in September. This added to growing signs that the Eurozone’s largest economy was in difficulty and is likely to end 2023 in a technical recession.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi gained by 0.04% to begin the week at a trade value of GHS 11.9139 from last week’s opening trade quote of GHS 11.9191. The Dollar weakened against a basket of currencies including the Cedi following a stack of data including non-farm payroll and services sector data which showed a slowing US economy. Against the Pound and the Euro, the Cedi plunged by 1.97% and 1.35% to open the week trading at GHS 14.7503 and GHS 12.7906 from last week’s opening trade values of GHS 14.4660 and GHS 12.6207 respectively.

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 11.5129 indicating a YTD loss of 34.02% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also presently being quoted at GHS 11.9139 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) after opening the year at GHS 10.0825 indicating a YTD loss of 18.16%.