The new year brought sharp declines for the Cedi, sliding to 10.20 from 8.35 at the end of 2022.
Ghana’s currency fell 37% between January and mid-December last year, before rallying strongly as the country reached a staff level agreement with the IMF for a $3bn loan programme.
However, the government’s move to suspend payments on most of its external debt in late December, labelled a default by credit rating agencies, caused the Cedi to resume its slump in 2023.
Annual inflation hit 50.3% in November from 40.4% a month earlier, while the economy expanded at the slowest pace in two years in the third quarter, growing 2.9%.
The Cedi, which had fallen as low as 14.50 per dollar in November, will remain under pressure this year, likely trading in a range of 10 to 17 against the dollar, amid a continued rise in global interest rates and gloomy investor sentiment following the country’s debt default.
Source: AzaFinance
