Cedi falls to major currencies Thursday

The Ghana cedi reversed its gains and fell to all the major trading currencies on Thursday pushing up the old Coast Securities (GCS)-Cedi Index by 0.53 points.

It depreciated 0.13GHp to the US dollar, 1.23GHp to the Pound, 1.44GHp to the Euro and 0.04GHp to the CFA.

The Index, which measures the average performance of the cedi against these major trading currencies, therefore, went up at 119.40 points on Thursday from 118.87 points on Wednesday.

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

The year-to-date depreciation is 2.90 percent to the dollar and a year-to-date appreciation of 2.06 percent to the Pound, 3.63 percent to the Euro and 3.75 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 Thursday, January 22, 2009.

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

Dollar      1.2311        1.2675        – 0.13
Pound     1.7074        1.7584        – 1.13
Euro        1.6022        1.6491        – 1.44

Equivalence of currency to one GH¢
CFA        397.77       409.42        – 0.03

Source: GNA