Currency News for March 9th 2020

The Ghanaian Cedi this week fell across the board against its three major trading partner currencies on both the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform and the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) as investors fled to safe-haven currencies and assets following a widening reach of the coronavirus. Deepening concerns about the health and economic impacts of the virus have sent global equities and currency markets into a tailspin. The Cedi is currently trading at a 1 month low against the US Dollar after it peaked at a more than 5 month high in late February, 2020.

The Cedi’s performance this week comes after the Government failed to raise its intended target of GHC 1.50 billion in a 3-year fixed-rate bond issued last week. The government was expecting to raise the amount with the ultimate aim of using the proceeds to sustain the local currency’s recent gains. As offshore investors’ participation remained low, the government accepted all GHC 1.07 billion bids tendered at a yield of 20.75%, unchanged from the yield on the last issue.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi plummeted 0.13%, 2.98%, and 2.65% to trade at GHC 5.3057, GHC 6.9748, and GHC 6.0614 from previous week’s trade values of GHC 5.2990, GHC 6.7727, and 5.9047 against the Dollar, the British Pound Sterling, and the Euro respectively. The greenback appreciated against the Cedi despite an emergency Fed rate cut of 50 basis points last week to counter the economic fallout from the spreading virus.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi depreciated by 1.16%, 3.64%, and 4.09% to begin the week trading at GHC 5.4743, GHC 7.1742, and GHC 6.2546 from previous week’s trading figures of GHC 5.4115, GHC 6.9223, and GHC 6.0091 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The Pound gained against some of its peers and the Cedi after a Bank of England decision not to cut UK rates immediately in response to the coronavirus epidemic.

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 5.3057 [March 9th, 2020] indicating a 4.18% year-to-date appreciation. 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 5.4743 [March 9th, 2020], representing a 3.90% year-to-date appreciation of the Cedi against the US Dollar.