Dr. Ernest Addison
THE BANK of Ghana (BoG) has offered US$25 million to the dealers through its Forex Forward Rates Auction (FFRA), the bank’s Secretary, Sandra Thompson, has indicated.
According to her, results of the FFRA number 0077/2022/018 held Tuesday indicated that demand for the US dollars outstripped supply by US$82.75 million, a marginal drop when compared with US$84.5 million recorded two weeks ago.
In a statement posted at the BoG website, she reported that 147 bids were submitted by dealers for a total of US$107.75 million, with tenors ranging between 7 days to 60 days, but the central bank accepted only 34 bids.
Out of the 34 bids, 11 apiece was accepted for 7-day and 15-day tenors, while 7 bids were accepted for 30-day tenor, 4 bids were for 45-day tenor, and one bid for 60-day tenor.
The US$107.75 million demand is lower than US$109.5 million recorded a fortnight ago on August 23, 2022), and the latest auction has a bid ratio of 4.31×.
Range of rates accepted were US$9.7000 to US$9.7555 for 7-day tenor, US$9.7000 to US$9.7725 for 15-day tenor, US$9.7450 to 9.8000 for 30-day tenor, US$9.7900 to $9.8900 for 45-day tenor, and US$9.900 to $9.900 for 60-day tenor.
Some US$54.25 million of the 7-day tenor was the highest bid by the dealers, followed by US$32.75 million for the 15-day tenor.
The 30-day tenor received bids worth US$16.25 million, whilst the 45-day tenor received bids amounting to US$3.5 million, whilst the 60-day tenor received bids, totalling US$1.0 million.
However, there were no bids for the 75-days tenor offer by the BoG, and it appears the high demand for the US dollars will fall further in view of the expected US$1.5 billion from the cocoa syndicated loan as well as some tranches of the US$3 billion from the International Monetary Fund to shore up the Cedi.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu