Cedi crosses $2 mark on the foreign exchange market

The Ghana Cedi has sunk further on the foreign exchange market with 2 Cedis trading for one dollar.

This comes months after the Bank of Ghana's announced measures to arrest the Cedis free fall which began last year November.

The pressure on the Cedis was attributed to importers who were bringing in goods ahead of the Christmas festivities.

However, since this 2012, the local currency has continued to fall. In May, the Bank of Ghana announced measures to prevent further decline of the cedi against the major international currencies.

These included the reintroduction of Bank of Ghana treasury bills in tenors of 30 days, 60 days and 270 days to support the monetary operations of the bank and also provide additional avenues for Cedi investments.

A review of the statutory reserve requirement of banks where they will no longer hold their reserves in different currencies, was also done.

In addition, the banks were required to maintain the mandatory 9 per cent reserve requirement on domestic and foreign deposit liabilities in Cedis only.

As these directives were spelt out, the Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Dufuor said the Cedi would recover from the plunge.

However the Cedis has fallen further and in July subsequent to that the governor of the bank of Ghana, Kwesi Amisah Arthur said the Cedi should stabilize by October.

Though the Cedi-Dollar exchange rate on the interbank market is below 2 Cedis, it has crossed the 2 Cedi threshold on the exchange market.