(Bloomberg) — Ghana’s currency appreciated a second day after the central bank sold dollars to the market to boost the cedi.
The currency of Africa’s biggest gold producer gained 0.2% to 16.3302 per dollar at 3:33 p.m. in the capital, Accra. The Bank of Ghana sold $214 million to the market last week through two- and seven-day contracts, Databank Group said in a note to clients.
The intervention was “the highest in a week this year,” Databank said. The dollar supply “also helped to ease some demand backlog.”
A central bank official separately confirmed the dollar sales and said the regulator expects volatility to remain subdued toward the end of the year, supported by robust foreign exchange reserves. These stood at $7.5 billion at the end of August, up from $5.1 billion a year ago.
The central bank’s governor previously has said that the institution is focused on bringing stability to the currency.
The cedi has lost 27% of its value against the dollar this year, making it the fifth-worst performing currency in the world of those tracked by Bloomberg, in part due to a debt rework that dragged on for two years after a default.
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It also faced pressure last week from a rally in the dollar after Donald Trump won the US presidential election.
Cedi depreciation has fanned inflation that’s averaged 23% this year and kept interest rates high.
Polls suggest Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate Mahamudu Bawumia could lose Dec. 7 elections to the National Democratic Congress’s John Dramani Mahama because of its handling of the economy.
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