Governor explains depreciation of cedi

The cedi depreciated by 13.1 per cent in dollar terms during the year, against an annual inflation of some 13.0 per cent, the Central bank said on Friday.

It said this follows a significant realignment of major currencies on the international foreign exchange market over the same period.

The Central Bank said the dollar appreciated against the Euro and the British pound by 7.6 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively.

It said the real exchange rate index of the cedi at the beginning of the year was 127.6 per cent, increasing by 5.8 per cent to 133.4 as at October.

"Over the last three months, however, the cedi has appreciated in real terms of just 0.3 per cent," the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Paul Acquah told journalists in Accra.

He said Ghana continues to show an upward trend of Gross International Reserve position, noting that it went from 235.4 million dollars in May 2001 to 488.8 million dollars by end of October, 2002. Gross reserves in months of imports increased from one month last April to two months as at the end of October.

Dr Acquah said interest rates have remained steady with low volatility and benchmark 91-day Treasury Bill rate moving marginally from 26.06 per cent in August to 26.09 per cent by October.

The yield on 182-day bill and one-year note remained flat at 26.9 and 27.0 per cent respectively between August and October, 2002 after the rapid declines in the year.

The Governor said within the inter-bank market, money market interest rates declined sharply from 21.9 per cent in September to 16.9 per cent in October 2002.

Commercial bank base rates remain within a range of 26 and 29 per cent.