Cedi slides on fresh corporate dollar demand

The Ghana cedi slid slightly against the dollar on Friday, its weakest since a three-year bond issue in February, traders said.

Kobla Nyaletey from Barclays Ghana quoted the local currency at 1.5310/35 against the dollar on the interbank at 1314 GMT, after opening at 1.5295/1.5320.

He said the cedi had depreciated steadily since rallying to 1.48 levels on February 17 when foreign investors sought cedis to pay for central bank's paper issuance.

"The cedi has ticked down today but the volumes we've seen have been pretty small. We haven't seen a build-up of demand pressures," Nyaletey said.

Biggles Amponsah from Access Bank said dollar demand from the cement industry was pressurising the cedi on Friday morning.

Analysts expect the cedi to continue to experience mild depreciationary pressures in the coming week as greenback demand from the oil and gas and manufacturing sectors and importers outstrips foreign inflows.

But they predict central bank will be quick to intervene to halt any repeat of the rapid depreciation seen in January.