In just 17 days since the start of the new year, Ghana’s currency has reportedly fallen 12.7%, the second worst performance among the top 15 currencies in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the latest data from the Bank of Ghana, one US dollar bought 13.10 units of cedis in the parallel market, while one dollar bought about 10.36 units in the local currency.
The cedi’s brief resurgence
Ghana’s currency finished 2022 as one of the world’s worst performing currencies, one of two of the top 15 currencies in sub-Saharan Africa that fell by double digits in the first 17 days of the new year Thereportsaid. The Egyptian pound, which fell 16.5% over the same period, was the only one of the top 15 currencies in sub-Saharan Africa to fall faster than the cedi.
The Ghanaian cedi’s 12.7% decline since the beginning of the year is still lower than the overall 2022 rate (38.86%), but the drop suggests that the currency’s resurgence that began in late 2022 has dissipated.
As Bitcoin.com News reported in mid-December 2022, the cedi rose from about GHS14:$1 to less than GHS9:1 in just four days. The currency’s resurgence was facilitated by reports suggesting that the Ghanaian government had secured a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ghana needs this loan to stabilize its economy.
In addition to the IMF loan package, Ghana, one of Africa’s top gold producers, hopes to ease pressure on the Cedi through the recently launched Gold for Oil scheme.
Bank of Ghana Exchange Ratepic.twitter.com/AGI7GfW5M3.
– Bank of Ghana (@thebankofghana) . 20 Jan 20, 2023
{But the cedi’s plunge to about GHS13.10 to the dollar at the forex parallel market suggesting that neither IMF loans nor barter schemes can stop the currency’s decline. Meanwhile, at the time of this writing, data from the Bank of Ghanashows that one U.S. dollar has purchased GHS10.36 on the official foreign exchange market.
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