Bank of Guyana recently disclosed that foreign currency transactions saw a 27.0 percent jump during the first quarter of 2023. This represents US$3.5B worth in transactions compared to US$2.8B in the first quarter of last year.
Guyana Standard understands that total purchases and sales were US$1.7B and US$1.8B respectively, resulting in net sales of US$154.7 million.
Meanwhile, transactions processed at the bank and nonbank cambios amounted to US$1.5B, an increase of 10.6 percent or US$142.9 million in the value of trades when compared with the corresponding period last year.
Central Bank also noted that commercial bank cambios continued to dominate the cambio trade with a 98.8 percent share of the entire cambio market transactions, which amounted to US$1.5B, an increase of 10.3 percent compared with the corresponding period a year ago.
Moreover, despite accounting for a minuscule share (1.2 percent), non-bank cambio transactions rose by 34.6 percent from the corresponding period in 2022 to reach US$17.6 million.
Importantly, hard currency purchases and sales by the Bank of Guyana were US$314.2 million and US$489.9 million compared with US$86.9 million and US$220.3 million, respectively, for the same period in 2022. The increase in purchases stemmed primarily from receipts through the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) and through other non-bank purchases by the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Guyana Standard understands that the US dollar remains the most traded currency on the market. In fact, US dollar transactions accounted for 95.3 percent of the overall market activity. the market share of the Euro was 2.1 percent, while the Sterling Pound and the Canadian dollar were 1.6 percent and 1.0 percent respectively. CARICOM currency transactions increased by 188.8 percent to US$6.3 million from US$2.2 million at end-March 2022.
The market share of the Trinidad & Tobago dollar was 92.0 percent followed by the Barbadian dollar with 5.7 percent and the EC dollar with 2.3 percent of the aggregate turnover.