Ghana cedi classified among ‘worst spot returns’ in Africa – Bloomberg

Ghana’s local currency is still been classified among African currencies with the ‘Worst Spot Returns’, according to a Bloomberg report.

On the World Currency Ranker, the cedi’s performance placed 17th, depreciating by -11.21 percent while the Zambian Kwacha was ranked first among the ‘Best Spot Returns’ for African currencies.

The development however comes after the Cedi ended the first half of 2023 with a better performance recorded than the same period in 2022.

The Bank of Ghana, on the other hand, has pegged the year-to-date loss of the local currency to the US dollar at around 20 percent on the interbank exchange market.

As of July 3, 2023, the Cedi was selling at GH¢11.90 to the US dollar on the retail market while the BoG was quoting GH¢11.00 as of 8:00 am on Monday.

Following the approval of Ghana’s IMF-supported programme for a $3 billion Extended Credit Facility to restore macroeconomic growth, the Cedi has made some marginal gains against the US dollar in the past three months of 2023.

It has gained about 9 percent of the US dollar on the retail market after Ghana’s programme was approved by the Fund on May 17, 2023.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Naira was classified as the worst African currency thus far losing about 39 percent of its value to the US dollar, according to Bloomberg.

Among the rankings, the Angola Kwanza and the Egyptian pound followed as the ‘Worst Spot Returns’ after posting year-to-date losses of 38.8 percent and 20 percent respectively.