Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Dr Gobind Ganga says there is no shortage of US currency in the banking system.
The Governor was responding to claims that a well-known shipping company was requesting that its clients pay for an exchange rate of $230 to one US dollar.
“There is sufficient foreign exchange in the market. As a matter of fact, for the Banks’ cambios we have almost US$50M available for those who want to purchase foreign exchange,” Dr Ganga told the Department of Public Information (DPI).
He, however, noted that there may be hoarding taking place and coupled with the demand for US dollar notes by foreign nationals, this could be responsible for the claims of currency shortage.
Nevertheless, he stressed the availability of such currencies at the commercial banks
“You can get a debit card in USD if you are travelling, that is a visa debit card. You can also wire money to wherever you wish to make payments and those are at very good rates which are hovering around $215… $215.50.”
The Central Bank Governor also reiterated that the country is currently in good financial standing with strong economic indicators.
“The financial indicators are good; with respect to inflation, for example, it is just about 1.2 per cent exchange rate and is relatively stable. In terms of commercial rates at the commercial bank, as I indicated before it’s just about $215 – $215.50.”
According to Dr Ganga, the Bank of Guyana is closer to entering into an agreement with an international banking institution to function as the correspondent bank following Bank of America’s withdrawal in July of 2016.
