The end of 2020 saw the cedi being named as one of the best-performing currencies in Sub Saharan Africa currency after it depreciated about 3.93% to the US dollar.
The 2020 performance of the cedi has been the best so far since 2017 when it depreciated by only 4.88%.
The rate of depreciation recorded at the forex bureau was even lower at 2.2%.
Joy Business reports that the local currency actually appreciated in the final two weeks of December 2020 at the forex bureau, from a depreciation rate of 3.1%.
Analysts have attributed the Bank of Ghana’s Forex Forward Auction and the diversified exports as some of the factors that brought about the cedis impressive performance.
“This sets a favourable entry into 2021. The expectations are for the GHS [cedi] to remain well supported in Q1-2021 [quarter one 2021] by the improved regulatory oversight, enhanced FX [foreign exchange] forward allotments and continued improvements in risk appetite of non-resident investors’, Courage Kingsley Martey, Senior Economic Analyst at Databank said.
Many analysts had earlier forecast that the cedi will end the year with a less than 5% depreciation to the dollar in 2020.
Recent historical performance of the cedi to dollar
2019 12.9%
2018 8.4%
2017 4.9%
2016 9.6%
2015 18.75%
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