Currency News [February 17, 2025]

The Cedi was subdued as it began the week building on last week’s losses against its three major trading partner currencies on the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform. Weaknesses in the Dollar, with the greenback seen nursing losses against some of its peers as calm creeps into the global financial market reduced the safe-haven currency’s appeal. This inadvertently pushed the Cedi to record gains against the Dollar on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com). The Cedi, however, failed to reciprocate a similar resilient performance against the Pound and the Euro on the Open Forex Market.

The Cedi’s performance comes at the end of the meeting between the International Monetary Fund and Ghanaian officials on the review of Ghana’s economic performance under the Fund’s Post-COVID Programme for Economic Growth recovery programme. A successful completion of the review process is expected to lead to the disbursement of the next tranche of USD 360.0 million from the Fund as part of the USD 3.0 billion Extended Credit Facility programme to boost the country’s forex reserves. In the interim, however, the Cedi is likely to undergo some pressures as some offshore investors prepare to repatriate proceeds from the recently paid interests on the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme bonds.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi traded down by 0.13%, 1.91%, and 1.73% to open the week at trade values of GHS 15.5078, GHS 19.5553, and GHS 16.2514 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 15.4877, GHS 19.1893, and GHS 15.9751 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro respectively. The UK’s currency climbed against a basket of trading pairs in the wake of data showing that the UK economy unexpectedly grew in the last quarter of 2024 at 1.4%, an improvement from the revised 1.0% over the preceding quarter.

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi gained by 0.38% against the Dollar, having been exchanged for GHS 15.4490 at the start of the week from last week’s opening trade value of GHS 15.5087. The Dollar’s weak showing comes in the wake of hot inflation data and after President Trump delayed imposing reciprocal tariffs on major US trading partners. Against the Pound and the Euro, the Cedi lost by 1.34% and 1.26% to open the week trading at GHS 19.4724 and GHS 16.1987 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 19.2142 and GHS 15.9965 respectively.

The Cedi was quoted at GHC 14.7074 on the first trading day of the year against the Dollar and is currently being sold at GHS 15.5078 indicating a Year-to-Date (YTD) depreciation of 5.44% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also presently being quoted at GHS 15.4490 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) after opening the year at GHS 14.7134 indicating a YTD loss of 5.00%.