So, despite the announcement of the $940m bailout programme, the Cedi has been behaving cynically and purposelessly lamenting against the major international trading currencies – the dollar being the major culprit – for the first two months of this year.
The depreciation rates for the first two months of 2014 and 2015 are similar; however, the reasons are not too obvious to me at the moment – still digging for more info! On the surface, methinks this could be due to seasonality amidst a growing import bill. Like it or not, in the absence of the Central Bank pursuing clearly targeted monetary policies backed by a commensurate response in fiscal policy – our Achilles heel – from the Ministry of Finance, Ghana’s pseudo dollar economy will continue to persist.
NB: Depreciation and appreciation are technically not the same. I have explained the computational framework in this note: https://www.facebook.com/notes/theo-acheampong/cedi-appreciation-or-depreciation-the-conceptual-framework-for-depreciationappre/10152232266934226