Ghana Cedi continues appreciations to the Pound/Euro but falls to US dollar

The Ghana cedi appreciated to the UK Pound and Euro but continued to fall to the US dollar on Monday to push the Gold Coast Securities (GCS)-Cedi Index down by 0.30 points.

The Index, which measures the average performance of the cedi against its major trading currencies, went down at 118.12 points from 118.42 points last Friday.

The cedi gains value when the index goes down and it loses value when the index goes up.

It opened the New Year with a year-to-date depreciation to the Dollar and the CFA of 0.02 percent and 1.28 per cent respectively. It however recorded 1.27 percent year-to-year appreciation against the Euro and the 0.58 per cent against the British Pound.

On a whole, the cedi gained 1.04GHp to the Pound, 2.14GHp to the Euro, but fell 0.02 GHp to the dollar and 0.05GHp to the CFA.

The Index change for the year to date and change base year (July 03 2007) to date now stands at 0.30 per cent and 18.12 per cent respectively.

The Index is calculated as a geometric weighted average of changes in the four currency rates against the cedi at the Inter-bank market, relative to a base of 100 set on 03 July 2007, when the Bank of Ghana redenominated the national currency at a base value of 100.

It is inversely proportional. A quote of 105.50 means the cedi value has depreciated by 5.50 per cent since the base period, while a quote of 85.3 means the cedi has gained by 14.77 per cent since its base year.

The following are the exchange rates for the four currencies on Monday, January 5, 2009.

Currency Buying Selling Depreciation (-)/Appreciation (+)
(GH¢)         (GH¢)         (Gp)

Dollar      1.1935       1.2350        – 0.02
Pound       1.7288       1.7893        + 1.04
Euro        1.6372       1.6936        + 2.14

Equivalence of currency to one GH¢
CFA         387.30       400.67        – 0.05

Source: GNA