Business News of Tuesday, 19 January 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Cedi to trade GH¢6.45 against US dollar by end of 2021 - CEFIS

The projection by the centre comes after the cedi in 2020 broke its own record The projection by the centre comes after the cedi in 2020 broke its own record

The Ghana cedi will trade at GH¢6.45 against the US dollar by the end of 2021, according to the Centre for Economic Finance and Inequality Studies (CEFIS).

The projection by the finance think tank comes after the cedi in 2020 broke its own record amid perennial circumstances associated with the December 7 general elections.

The Ghana cedi posted a depreciation rate that was described by some economists as the healthiest since 2004 when it recorded a depreciation of 2.5 percent.

For 2020 which was an election year, the value of the cedi shed 3.9 percent to the US dollar and was tipped as the currency’s best performance since the 1992 election.

To address a further depreciation of the cedi and stabilize the economy, the Bank of Ghana plans to inject US$775 million through its forex forward auction initiative for the first quarter of 2021.

The BoG believes the move is necessary at a time when demand for forex is on a high.

Some US$50 million out of the amount will be propelled into Ghana’s economy through a bi-weekly structure up until the end of the first quarter of 2021.

For the second quarter of 2021, the amount will then be reduced by half all through to the end of the year. This meant Ghana will see US$300million injected into the economy in the first quarter of 2021 in a bid shore-up the local currency.