The Ghana cedi held steady against the US dollar last week as soft US inflation data caused the American greenback to weaken against a basket of emerging market currencies, including the local unit.

As a result, the cedi gained 0.13% week-on-week to end the week’s trades at a mid-rate of GH¢15.93 to a dollar.

However, robust economic data from the Eurozone and the UK caused the pound and the euro to strengthen, resulting in the cedi shedding 0.86% week-on-week and 0.58% week-on-week against the pound and the euro. 

Meanwhile, the cedi would gain some respite from the Bank of Ghana’s 7-day Forward Auction Initiative this week.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced a seven-day forward auction last week, where banks and authorised foreign exchange dealers could submit bids to purchase foreign currencies, with a settlement date set to seven days after the auction.

Analysts believe this development seeking to replace the spot market intervention, will also augment the Bulk Oil Distributing Companies auction and help tame demand pressures on the market.

During the maiden auction last week, the BoG sold about $53 million which helped the local unit to gain 0.29% day-on-day vs the American greenback. 

Against the backdrop of this initiative, analysts see room for the cedi to remain fairly stable in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, one dollar is going for GH¢15.90 on the retail market.

So far, the dollar has lost about 23% to the dollar on the retail market since January 1, 2024.