Cedi’s gain against UK pound pulls Index down

A 1.37GH pesewas gain by the cedi against the UK Pound on Monday pushed down the Gold Coast Securities (GCS)-Cedi Index down by 0.08 points despite losing to other major currencies.

The cedi depreciated by 0.87GHp to the Euro and 0.02GHp to the CFA but remained flat to the US dollar after falling to it (dollar) several days in weeks.

The Index, which measures the average performance of the cedi against its major trading currencies, therefore, went down at 119.71 points on Monday from 119.79 points last Friday.

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

The year-to-date depreciation is 1.81 percent to the dollar, 2.79 per cent to the Pound and a year-to-date appreciation of 2.58 percent to the Euro and 2.65 percent 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 19, 2009.

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

Dollar      1.2161       1.2559        Stable
Pound       1.7891       1.8483        + 1.37
Euro        1.6171       1.6694        – 0.87

Equivalence of currency to one GH¢
CFA         392.94       405.65        – 0.02

Source: GNA