Foreign exchange
rates at forex bureaux stabilise
All-Share Index makes slight gain
Foreign exchange
rates at forex bureaux stabilise
Accra (Greater Accra Region) 09
May 2000
Mr Kwasi Fosu Gyabaa, President of
the Ghana Association of Forex Bureaux, on Monday said the exchange rates of
major foreign currencies have stabilised even though measures outlined by the
Minister of Finance last month are yet to be implemented.
Most forex bureaux are now quoting
the dollar at 4,500 cedis and 4,700 cedis and the pound between 6,700 cedis and
7,000 cedis.
In an interview with the (GNA) in
Accra, Mr Gyabaa said the situation had calmed because of the swoop on black
market operators and the injection of 50 million dollars from the donor
community.
He said currently, demand for
foreign currencies had declined and there was the likelihood that the 50
million dollars might have been injected into the banks to meet the
requirements of the "big players, even though supply to the forex bureaux
has not increased".
The dollar was being sold at
between 5,500 cedis and 6,000 cedis while the pound was sold at 8,000 cedis or
more in April, when the country was hit by a foreign exchange crunch.
Most businessmen who required
foreign exchange had to buy from the black market at prices higher than what
was quoted by the forex bureaux.
After a series of outbursts by
economists, industrialists, the opposition in parliament and the general
public, the Minister of Finance held a press conference at which he announced
some measures, including checks on the operations of forex bureaux, to stem the
situation.
As part of the measures, forex
bureaux will now sell not more than 2,000 dollars to a client a day. Forex
bureaux now sell up to 5,000 dollars to a client but "since demand has
declined, it is only those who genuinely need hard currencies that come to
us".
Mr Gyabaa said operators of the
forex bureaux are having a series of meetings with the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to
formulate guidelines to regulate their operations adding that there was no need
for restrictions by the government because the BOG regulates the market.
"Moreover, there has not been
any crisis between 1997 and last year August when the regulations were relaxed.
It is not our fault that the situation went out of hand. We all know that the
situation was caused by a shortfall in government foreign exchange inflows from
external shocks from world cocoa and gold prices.
"The restrictions on our
operations are therefore neither here nor there because the real culprits are
the black market operators and speculators whose activities caused the price
hikes.
"What should be done now is
for government to lobby the World Bank and the donor community to honour their
pledges to enable the country to meet its foreign exchange requirements,"
he added.
GRi…/
All-Share Index makes slight gain
Accra (Greater Accra) 09 May 2000
Market activities on the Accra bourse remained dull on Monday but the All-Share Index managed to gain 0.06 points on the strength of an appreciation in the share price of Fan Milk Limited (FML).
The All-Share Index, the main market indicator, which lost 43.44 points at the close of Friday's trading, went up to 825.62 points from 825.56 points.
The change in the year to date inched up from 12.14 per cent to 12.15 per cent with the market capitalisation also moving up by a small margin to 3,335.87 billion cedis from 3,335.78 billion cedis.
A total of seven equities sold 9,500 shares, far lower than the 303,200 shares sold on Friday.
The market remained offer-driven but total shares offered declined from 2.4 million to 2.3 million. Demand of 110,300 was lower than Friday's 411,700.
In the broader market, there was only one price change with nine equities registering negative pressures. FML gained five cedis to open the week at 980 cedis.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 530
AGC 18,600
ALW 2,500
BAT 459
CFAO 38
EIC 1,885
FML 980 +5
GBL 1,450
GCB 980
GGL 976
HFC 910
MGL 200
MLC 150
MOGL 16,000
PAF 300
PZ 800
SCB 24,000
SPPC 150
SSB 1,998
UNIL 1,850
UTC-E 125
CMLT 422
GRi…/