The Ghana cedi faced renewed pressure last week after a brief recovery two weeks ago that made it the best-performing currency in the world during that time.
The domestic currency depreciated by about 9% against the US dollar in the retail market, wiping out the previous week’s gains. It exchanged at an average of GH¢11.50 to the US dollar in the retail market, while it sold for about GH¢10.97 on the interbank market.
The forex bureaus offered it for almost GH¢12. It also lost 4.8% week-on-week to the euro and 3.1% week-on-week to the pound respectively.
Analysts attribute the sudden reversal in the cedi’s performance to widespread speculative foreign exchange purchases as the domestic currency strengthened following the International Monetary Fund deal.
However, they expect the forex market rates to stabilize around the current levels until the mid-year budget review, with policy propositions and the scale of monetary policy adjustments envisaged under the programme potentially shaping market sentiments.
