The Ghana cedi currency hit a new low on Friday against the U.S. dollar on the back of surging demand for the greenback by both local and foreign investors, a trader said.
"There's a lot of people queuing up for the dollar to cover import bills -- the demand is really high from all sectors, especially the telecoms, mines and manufacturers," said Barclays Bank Ghana chief trader Kobla Nyaletey.
The local currency hit a low of 1.700 against the dollar at Friday's open, from Thursday's fresh lows of 1.6900/25 in a steady fall in the last 3 days.
Nyaletey said there was also some panic buying of the dollar by investors who were unsure of Central Bank intervention.
"When there is a sharp movement for three days without any specific direct intervention to address it, it creates panic," Nyaletey said adding that the market had not seen an "active" Central Bank support as was done last year.
"I don't think anything positive has happened in the past 3 days (from the Central bank) - We are now at the doorstep of a snowball effect," Nyaletey said.