Central Bank declines $82m bids in forex forward auction
The Central Bank for the forex forward rates auction held on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, accepted $25 million bids submitted thereby rejecting bids amounting to some $82 million.
The $25 million accepted bids were out of some of $107 million bids made by the various banks at the auction.
This represents some 43 bids accepted out of the 150 total bids made by banks.
The bids were made for the 7 day, 15 day, 30 day, 45 day, 60 day and 75 day tenors.
Total bids submitted for the 7 day tenor amounted to $51.25 million of which the Bank of Ghana (BoG) accepted $13 million.
For the 15 day, 30 day and 45 day tenors, bids made totaled $28.75 million, $19.75 million and $4 million respectively.
The BoG, for the 15 day, 30 day and 45 day tenors accepted bids totaling $4.5 million, $4.5 million and $1.5 million respectively.
For the 60 day and 75 day tenors, bids submitted amounted to $2.5 million and $750,000 with the Central Bank accepting bids to the tune of $1.5 million and zero dollars respectively.
BoG slash Forex auction target by $200m; sets $150m target in Q3 2022
Some $150 million dollars is projected to be sold out to authorised dealers in the third quarter of the year.
This is per the Bank’s third quarter Auction Target Calendar for Multiple-Price Foreign Exchange Forward Auction.
According to the Bank of Ghana, the said amount is going to be sold at the Foreign Exchange Forward Auction in accordance to its auction guidelines.
Compared to the some $350m auctioned in the last quarter, the Central Bank’s decision to auction $150m for the third quarter indicates a reduction of some $200m in its Forex forward auction.
The reduction in its forex auction can be attributed to the decline in the Bank’s foreign reserves from a little above $9.7bn last year to $8.3bn in April this year.
This is further evidenced by the Central Bank’s inability to meet the $450m demand by Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) for fuel imports.
The Bank of Ghana, in the publication of the Forex auction calendar, has called for the invitation of bids as per the prescribed format to purchase the US dollars against the cedis separately on each auction date.
Per the auction calendar, forex forward auctions amounting to $25m will be auctioned on each auction date from July 12, 2022 to September 20, 2022.
Receipts of bids will be made from 9:30am to 10:30am on each auction day with the announcement of the auction results made at 3pm on each auction date.
The BoG’s forex forward auction programme is to help govern the conduct of forex auctions on the interbank foreign exchange market, deepen the forex market and reduce uncertainty on the future availability of dollars to meet the forex need of importers and exporters.
