The Ghana cedi has lost about 5.01% value to the US dollar on the forex or retail market since January 1, 2023.
The cedi registered significant gain of 27% in value to the American ‘greenback’ in December 2022 to reduce its year-to-date losses. This was largely due to Ghana’s Staff Level Agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
However, with only 13 days into the New Year, the cedi has lost some value, which is worrying to analysts and market watchers.
Checks on the market rates indicate that the local currency is going for about ¢12.90 on the average at the forex bureaus.
The same could be said about the cedi’s performance against the pound and the euro. It is trading at
¢13.40 and ¢15 to the euro and pound respectively.
Analysts are however hopeful that the implementation of the ‘gold-for-oil’ swap programme is expected to tame corporate demand for dollars and provide support for the cedi.
Also, an expected IMF-support programme by March 2023 will help tame the sharp depreciation of the cedi.
The Ghana Cedi ended 2022 as the second weakest currency on the African continent with a year-to-date loss of 38.86% to the US dollar, according to Bloomberg.
Globally, the local currency placed 145th. The Sierra Leone Leone came 146th whilst the Argentina Peso and Sierra Lankan Rupee placed 147th and 148th respectively.
They were classified as the currencies with the “Worst Spot Returns” by Bloomberg.