Currency News [September 2, 2024]

The Cedi was mixed at the week’s open against its three major international trading partner currencies on both the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform and the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) as a number of recent events drove the Cedi’s diverging movements. The local currency remained pressured over concerns of the repatriation of investment proceeds following the government’s payment of interest on the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) bonds last month.

The Cedi, however, received a boost following a revelation by the finance minister that Ghana is expected to commerce processes for the third review of its Post-Covid Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) with the IMF later in the month. The minister noted during the monthly economic update press conference in Accra that preliminary data for the first half of the year indicated that Ghana was on track to meet the targets for the review. According to the minister, this is expected to occasion the release of several funds including USD 360.0 million from the IMF and a USD 300.0 million from the World Bank (WB) under the WB’s Development Policy Operation 2.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi traded down by 0.62% and 0.18% to open the week at trade values of GHS 15.2378 and GHS 20.0316 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 15.1441 and GHS 19.9962 against the Dollar and the Pound respectively. Against the Euro, the Cedi soared by 0.31% to begin the week at a trade value of GHS 16.8687 from last week’s opening trade quote of GHS 16.9216. The Pound edged higher against most peers, boosted by expectations that the Bank of England will keep interest rates high for longer than its counterparts in the US and the Eurozone.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi was down by 0.35% against the Dollar having opened the week at a trade value of GHS 15.6751 from last week’s opening trade quote of GHS 15.6206. Against the Pound and the Euro, the Cedi traded up by 0.10% and 0.64% to open the week trading at GHS 20.5957 and GHS 17.3431 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 20.6155 and GHS 17.4554 respectively. The Euro weakened against a host of other trading pairs battered by inflation data from Germany and Spain, which raised bets on the European Central Bank’s rate easing outlook.

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 15.2378 indicating a year-to-date (YTD) loss of 28.17% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also being quoted at GHS 15.6751 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) after opening the year at GHS 11.9945 indicating a YTD loss of 30.69%.