The Ghana cedi continued its marginal improvement against the US dollar selling at GH¢12.50 as at February 3, 2023.
This is about 3.1 per cent gain to the American ‘greenback’ since the beginning of this week (January 30, 2022).
Between February 2, 2023 and February 3, 2023, the cedi gained about 10 pesewas in value to the world’s powerful currency.
Some market operators have described the cedi’s performance against the dollar in particular as surprising since the country’s reserves have fallen significantly to about 2.0 months of import cover, whilst its Net Foreign Asset is also negative.
However, the significant progress made by the government on the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) could be the rationale behind the Cedi’s recent performance.
This is assuring investors that the government is committed to bringing the country’s debt to a sustainable level, and subsequently building a robust fiscal economy.
A successful DDEP will pave way for an International Monetary Fund support programme, which some research outfits believe Ghana will secure the programme by the first quarter of 2023.
The cedi gained a marginal 0.78 per cent value to the American greenback last week to trade at about GH¢12.85 to one US dollar.
The Central Bank during that period sold about $22 million on the spot market to help tame the corporate demand.
However, in January 2023, the local currency recorded a little over 17 per cent depreciation to the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the local currency is still selling at GH¢15.50 and GH¢13.50 to the pound and the Euro respectively.
A Business Desk Report