After showing some excellent performance and becoming the best-performing currency in the world for the past several weeks, the Ghana cedi has continued to drop in value.
In the retail market, the local currency depreciated by almost 9% against the US dollar last week, wiping off the gains it had made the week before. In comparison to the previous week, the cedi has weakened against the euro by 4.8% and against the pound by 3.1%.
The average retail price was 11.50 cedis for one U.S. dollar, while the interbank rate was 10.89 cedis. However, the cedi is selling for around 12 at forex bureaus.
Since January 1, 2023, the cedi has lost almost 12% of its value against the U.S. dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg; year-to-date, the cedi has lost 21.8% of its value against the dollar on the interbank market.
When the local currency surged after the International Monetary Fund deal, analysts speculated and bought a lot of foreign funds, which led to a rapid reversal in the cedi’s gains.
However, until the mid-year budget review, it is anticipated that the foreign exchange market rates would stabilise around the present levels, with the suggested policies and the size of monetary policy changes envisioned under the plan potentially impacting market opinions.
