Business News of Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Source: Citifmonline.com
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The British Pound and Euro hit seven and five cedis respectively last week at some forex bureaus across the country.
The British pound started the year (2015) at five cedis across forex bureaus in the country while the Euro started at 3 cedis, 90 pesewas. The Pound and Euro are not the only major foreign currencies thrashing the cedi on the forex market.
The dollar last month hit four cedis after rallying between 3 cedis 80 and 3 cedi 90 peswes for weeks and is now being sold at 4 cedis 45 pesaswes in forex bureaus.
Ghana’s talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) together with the first tranche of funds from the IMF worth 114 million dollars, was expected to help the cedi from further fall.
But weeks after the cash hit the accounts of the Bank of Ghana no hope appears to be insight for the cedi. The British Pound hit 7 cedis 3 pesewas across forex bureaus across the country while the Euro hit 5 cedis 4 peswas by Monday 22nd June, 2015.
At the interbank foreign exchange market where banks trade among themselves the British Pound and Euro are yet to hit seven and five cedis respectively. The British Pound for example is now selling 6 cedis 78 pesweas while the Euro is now selling at 4 cedis 84 pesweas.
But it appears the cedi’s woes will not end soon. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Financial Services, Ken Thompson the cedi will continue to fall against major trading currencies unless there is a deliberate effort to transform the economy.
“In February this year… I said the cedi was going to completely fall, and I said the IMF target will be missed and reading between the lines, it looks like the target has been missed.
What I’m hoping for is that, the Ministry of Finance will be able to negotiate with the IMF team so that it will release the tranche of dollars that was expected. In addition, that will also help to release donor funding… then they will bring in dollars.
The cedi will continue to decline unless we change the demand and supply situation.” He said.