Currency News [July 8, 2024]

The Cedi opened the new week pressured against its three major trading partner currencies despite recent Cedi-positive developments which the market believed should have inured to the benefit of the local currency. These developments include the disbursement of USD 360.0 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following the IMF’s board approval of the second review of Ghana’s programme with the Fund.

News that Ghana’s recently announced debt restructuring deal with some of its external creditors had gained the approval of the official creditor committee similarly had minimal impact in reviving the struggling Cedi as the local currency remained weighed down by the broad strengthening of its international trading partner currencies. It is expected that the funds received from the IMF will enable Ghana’s central bank to strengthen its intervention in the currency market to give the Cedi a boost. Emerging news that international rating organization, Moody’s, has indicated that Ghana’s ratings are likely to be aligned at a higher level within the Caa category is expected to boost investor confidence in the domestic economy.

On the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi weakened by 0.84%, 2.24%, and 1.80% to begin the week at trade values of GHS 14.7159, GHS 18.8672, and GHS 15.9392 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 14.5933, GHS 18.4547, and GHS 15.6581 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The Pound rose by a larger margin against most of its trading pairs including the Cedi on the back of the positive tone generated by the opposition Labour Party winning a massive majority in the UK’s general elections, potentially ending the volatile rule of the Conservative Party.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi traded down by 0.90%, 2.16%, and 1.69%, having begun the week at trade values of GHS 15.4106, GHS 19.7532, and GHS 16.6916 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 15.2729, GHS 19.3347, and GHS 16.4138 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The Cedi suffered a relatively minimal loss against the Dollar following surprisingly soft US payrolls data, which boosted bets that the Fed will start cutting rates soon.

The Cedi was quoted at GHC 11.8859 on the first trading day of the year against the Dollar and is currently being sold at GHS 14.7159 indicating a year-to-date (YTD) loss of 23.78% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also being quoted at GHS 15.4106 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) after opening the year at GHS 11.9945 indicating a YTD loss of 28.48%.