The government is maintaining that there is no shortage of foreign exchange, despite articles carried in the press suggesting same. According to Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Dr. Gobind Ganga, there has been an increase in foreign exchange market transactions.
“IN January this year, we would have seen purchases by bank Cambios to be about US$82.7M. BY February 18, we have seen bank Cambios again purchases US$158M so by the end of February, you would have seen much more in terms of the purchases. In terms of sales, in January, sales were US$95.1M, up to February 18, US$164.6M” Ganga explained during a Press Conference on Thursday.
With respect to the non-bank Cambios, he noted that purchases have been at US$3.2M and sales at US$2.4M in January 2017. Up to February 18, 2017, purchases of US$5.6M and sales of US$6.3M were seen.
According to Ganga, banks have to ensure that the demands received for foreign exchange are legitimate before releasing those demands.
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan also clarified that the government does not set foreign exchange rates as is suggested in the press.
“To make it very clear, VERY CLEAR that unlike the article suggestion that people suggested to them, we are not setting rates we are not setting rates. the exchange rate for Guyana is ‘freely’ determined, it’s a liberalized, what we have put in place is a spread, you can buy at $250 if yah want and sell it at $253…its just the spread, we are not setting the rates…you can buy at any rate you want but what we are saying to sell it back you must only make a maximum profit of $3…I dont see how that can be rate setting” he told media practitioners.
Previously, the Bank of Guyana had stated that the circulation of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbadian dollars in the Guyanese economy has been noticed and that this indicates that these currencies are being converted into Guyana dollars then used to purchase US currency. As such, the purchasing of TT and Barbadian dollars had temporarily ceased.
