Currency News for November 29, 2021

Jitters accompanying the highly mutated coronavirus variant sent investors fleeing from emerging market and risk-sensitive currencies as more countries record cases of the Omicron variant. The Cedi remained subdued against the Dollar, extending its weekly losses as moves by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to boost the local unit yields limited results.

The central bank at its last monetary policy committee meeting for 2021 lifted the policy rate for the first time in more than five years in a bid to boost domestic assets’ appeal to offshore investors. This together with the BoG’s recently increased intervention in forex forward rates auctions have failed to prop up the Cedi as demand for forex by importers and businesses surges.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi slid by 0.07% and 0.22% to open the week quoted at GHC 5.9182 and GHC 6.6723 from last week’s open trade values of GHC 5.9143 and GHC 6.6574 against the Dollar and the Euro respectively. The Dollar added to its earlier gains against the Cedi buoyed by its safe-haven appeal. The Cedi continued its impressive run against the Pound as it added 0.71% to its gains to trade at GHC 7.8747 at the start of the week from last week’s opening quote of GHC 7.9310.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi weakened by 0.05% and 0.20% to trade at GHC 6.1716 and 6.9615 at the beginning of the week from last week’s open quotes of GHC 6.1683 and GHC 6.9477 against the Dollar and the Euro respectively. The single currency came in strong against the local unit recovering some of its earlier losses despite fears that surging cases of virus infection could post a major downturn to the Eurozone’s recovery path. The Cedi was quoted at GHC 8.2231 at that start of the week after gaining by 0.68% against the Pound from last week’s opening trade value of GHC 8.2797.

According to the BoG inter-bank rates, the Ghana Cedi began the year 2021 at GHC 5.7631 [January 4th, 2021] against the US Dollar and is currently quoted at GHC 5.9182 [November 29, 2021] indicating a 2.69% year-to-date (ytd) depreciation. Similarly, on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Ghana Cedi traded at GHC 5.8885 [January 4th, 2021] and is currently trading at GHC 6.1716 [November 29, 2021], representing a 4.81% ytd depreciation against the US Dollar.