Ghana cedi at low records

• Posted on July 4, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

Ghana’s cedi currency hit a record low on Tuesday, due mainly to global pressures as investors continued to exit emerging market assets, indicted by analysts.

The currency of the major commodity exporter has weakened since the start of May, touching 4.8250 to the dollar on Tuesday.

“It is a combination of emerging market assets sell-off pressure and unmet corporate (dollar) demand,” a currency trader at a major lender in Accra said in an interview.

Cumulatively, the local unit depreciated 5.3 percent in the first six months, compared to 3.3 percent in the first half of last year, according to data.

The central bank said last month it had significantly increased its weekly dollar sales to banks in support of the local currency.

The bank’s treasury did not respond to request for comment on Tuesday.

Ghana, which exports cocoa, gold, and oil, is in the final year of a $918 million credit deal signed in 2015 with the International Monetary Fund to reduce the budget deficit, inflation, and debt and to stabilize the local currency.