Weekly Currency News Report – Week 17 [April 27 2025]

The Ghanaian Cedi extended its free fall into the start of this week, registering its fourth consecutive weekly loss against its three major trading partner currencies on both the Bank of Ghana (BoG) inter-bank trading platform and the Open Forex Market (oanda.com) as pressures continue to mount on emerging market and riskier currencies. This is widely coming on the back of the ongoing Middle East crisis, with its attendant effects of spiking crude oil prices and disrupting some supply chains. Growing fears of global inflation picking up momentum have led investors to take positions in safe-haven assets at the expense of riskier assets and currencies.

On the domestic front, rising import bill for crude along with increased demand for forex by businesses and body corporates amid tepid supply of forex by the central bank have added to pressure on the local unit. Several body corporates in these times of the year increase their forex demand in a bid to fulfill their financial obligations to their offshore investors and partners. This notwithstanding, Ghana maintains a strong Gross International Reserves, allowing the central bank to maintain confidence in the domestic currency.

On the BoG inter-bank trading platform, the Cedi plummeted by 0.54%, 0.64%, and 0.10%, having been exchanged for GHS 11.1156, GHS 15.0482, and GHS 13.0299 at the start of the week from the previous week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 11.0555, GHS 14.9526, and GHS 13.0170 against the Dollar, the Pound, and the Euro, respectively. The Dollar continued to gain against most its trading pairs, aided this week by some better-than-expected flash PMI data. According to S&P Global, U.S. business activity growth rebounded in April after “having slowed to near-stagnation in March following the outbreak of the war in the Middle East.”

On the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), the Cedi depreciated by 0.34% and 0.53% to open the week trading at GHS 11.1187 and GHS 15.0587 from last week’s opening trade quotes of GHS 11.0809 and GHS 14.9795 against the Dollar and the Pound, respectively. The Pound strengthened against a basket of peers, having benefited from the release of data that showed that UK composite PMI rose to 52.0 from 50.3, beating forecasts of 49.8 and hitting a two-month high, with manufacturing jumping to a 47-month high of 53.6. Against the Euro, the Cedi was unchanged at 13.0437 at the start of this week against the previous week’s opening trade value.

The Cedi was quoted at GHC 10.5053 on the first trading day of the year against the Dollar and is currently trading at GHS 11.1156, indicating a Year-to-Date (YTD) depreciation of 5.81% on the BoG inter-bank trading platform. It is also currently quoted at GHS 11.1187 on the Open Forex Market (oanda.com), having opened the year at GHS 10.5253, indicating a YTD loss of 5.64%.