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Senior Economic Analyst at Databank Research, Courage Marety has predicted the Ghana cedi is unlikely to depreciate by more the 5 percent to the US dollar for 2022.
This, he believes is hinged on the central bank’s commitment to ensuring price stability for the period through the US$450 million Forex Forward Auction in the first quarter of 2022.
In an interaction with Joy Business, Courage Martey explained, “we trust the Central Bank to remain committed to price stability in the goods market and the foreign exchange market; and they have already signalled that in the calendar they released”.
He continued, “We are also mindful of the risk to the currency especially given what we are expecting to happen in the advance market. Foreign investor movement and development in the advance market could also prove special to the currency [cedi].
“In that regard, we think there will still be some form of depreciation. We think the depreciation we will see for 2022 should still be a single-digit of depreciation, probably below 5%,” Martey explained.
Meanwhile, in 2021 the cedi lost over 9 percent of its value to the US dollar in the retail market and on the interbank market, the local currency lost about 4 percent of its value to the US dollar.
For 2022, the Center for Economic, Finance and Inequality Studies at the University of Ghana has predicted that the Ghana Cedi will end the year with a depreciation of GH¢7 to the US dollar.