Cedi falls further

Predictions by Barclays and Standard Chartered earlier this year that more than GH¢4 would be used to gain $1 on the foreign exchange market before the year ends have begun to materialize.

Some forex bureaus and major banks in the country sold the US dollar for a little over GH¢4 last week.

It would be recalled that earlier this year government spoke loudly as usual, pledging that the first tranche of the IMF bailout funds would help ease the pressure on the local currency when it hits the account of the Central Bank in April.

Some commercial banks have been selling a dollar at about GH¢4.01 since Tuesday, 19th May 2015 and the trend continued at the close of business on Friday. Prior to that, the local currency fought to maintain itself at GH¢3.85 to the dollar for short period of time until May, this year when it started to succumb to added pressure.

The development, which has continued for about three consecutive weeks, is said to have caused a shortage of major foreign currencies, including the Dollar, British pound and Euro at forex bureaus in Accra.

On Friday, the British pound was selling at GH¢6.33 while the euro sold at GH¢4.53 at forex bureaus across the country.

The Bank of Ghana noted that from January to May 8, 2015, the cedi cumulatively depreciated by 17.2 percent against the USD compared to 21.3 percent recorded the same period in 2014.