Last week Friday marked exactly 5 months since the Bank of Ghana introduced the new forex rules.
Citi Business News analysis shows that the cedi has depreciated by about 27 percent to major trading currencies from the beginning of the year and about 22 percent after the introduction of the new foreign exchange rules on February 4.
Prior to the introduction of the new rules, the cedi had depreciated by about 8.1 percent to the US dollar, about 6.8percent to the British Pound and 6.4percent to the Euro.
The Cedi’s rate of depreciation against the US dollar in the past month has been better than other months this year.
The trend shows one month after the new FX rules were introduced, the rate of depreciation slowed down from 8.1percent to 4.9percent.
It however increased in the second month by 6.2percent, dropped to 3.6 percent in the third month, and worsened to 4.6 percent in the fourth.
The rate of depreciation in the fifth month however shows the rate of depreciation has fallen significantly to 2.7percent by July 4th.
In all the Cedi has depreciated against the US dollar by about 27 percent from the beginning of the year.
The rate of the cedi’s depreciation against the Euro slowed down from 6.37percent to 6.35percent in the first month, 5.9 percent in the second, downwards to 4.8 percent in the third month, and even further to 2.9 percent in the fourth.
In the period to 4th July, the rate of depreciation has dropped to 2.5percent.
In all the Cedi has depreciated against the Euro by about 26 percent from the beginning of the year.
An analysis of the cedi’s performance against the British pound however reveals after an improvement fourth month it worsened in the fifth month.
Having slowed down steadily from 6.9 percent to 5.7 percent in the second month, to 5.2percent in the third month and 3.9 in the fourth, the latest analysis has shown the rate of depreciation worsened to 4.9 percent in the period to July 4th.
In all the Cedi has depreciated against the British Pound by about 29 percent from the beginning of the year.
By: Anim Kwaku Boadu/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @boaduanim