Bank of Guyana probes sudden rise of US dollar – cash available at banks at $216- Governor
(KAIETEUR NEWS) Bank of Guyana has started a probe to determine the reasons of the US currency reaching over $230 over the weekend.
Yesterday, Bank of Guyana’s governor, Dr. Gobind Ganga, when questioned, said that the matter has engaged the attention of Government also.
A combination of factors has been blamed on the rates, stable for years at around $205-210 for US$1. For this year, so far, the Bank of Guyana has released over US$6M in cash to commercial banks to assist with the demand.
“We have been paying attention and it has the attention of the Government too,” Dr. Ganga said.He disclosed that US cash can be available at the banks for about $216. Of course, the bank official said, most likely not large amounts of cash would be readily available. However, it is on the streets that the Bank of Guyana would be worried.
The exchange rate was over $233 yesterday at city cambios.
In the last decade, with the economy chugging along with its traditional goods and services, there exchange rates has rarely slide back $215. However, a number of things have been happening with the economy. There has been a large infusion of foreign investments in especially the oil and gas sector. The exports have not been matching up.
The Chinese have reportedly entered the rice market with Venezuela. They require US dollars in return, reportedly, for being paid in gold and oil. Trinidadians and their companies have been taking out the US dollars. So too have the telephone companies.
To compound matters, cross border trade with Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela especially, have seen a rise in demand for the US cash.
The situation with cash shortage has surfaced in recent years with Bank of Guyana halting its trade of Trinidad and Barbados dollars after finding that those foreign currency-starved countries were dumping their dollars here. Guyana still has millions of dollars in currencies from those countries on hand.
The rising price for US dollars would have direct knock-on effect on the price of goods and services in Guyana.
According to Dr. Ganga, all the banks have sufficient funds for effecting wire transfers for less than $218 for US$1. It is the rising rates for cash- cold hard currency that is being probed, he confirmed.
