In July 2024, the largest factors contributing to changes in exchange rates were arrangements with the International Monetary Fund, economic growth, interest rate cuts, and politics. The Suriname Dollar gained value after receiving financial assistance from the IMF. The Georgian Lari strengthened as investments and consumption remained high. Interest rate cuts weakened the Kazakh Tenge. Ghana’s currency continued to lose value as a result of new reforms.
Suriname’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has continued to prove beneficial. The EFF provides longer repayment plans to countries with serious payment imbalances due to structural weaknesses. Since the IMF approved the EFF for Suriname in December 2021, inflation has decreased significantly. The IMF expects Suriname’s economy to continue growing, foreign reserves to increase, the state budget to have a surplus, and inflation to continue to decline.
The Georgian Lari has strengthened against the US dollar as the country continues to experience economic growth. One driving factor is the increase in investments, mainly from the public sector. Domestic consumption has also remained strong, primarily in the service sector, which includes tourism, transport, and IT services.
The value of the Kazakh Tenge has decreased over the past month, weakening against the dollar. The government began cutting interest rates in February of this year but decided to halt the progression of planned further cuts in April, which may have helped reduce monthly inflation. Despite the Tenge’s weakening over the previous month, it has seen some strengthening recently, and financial experts are hopeful the currency will cease to decline.
The Nigerian Naira continues to be one of the worst-performing currencies globally this year. The Nigerian economy faces the results of reforms put in place following the appointment of President Bola Tinubu in May 2023. While the reforms themselves were intended to help stabilize the economy, the resulting increase in food inflation was an unintended consequence. To regain better control over the currency, the Nigerian government has raised the minimum wage, put a temporary stop on import taxes for certain food items, and is increasing their use of the USD while capping the exchange rate at which the dollar can be sold.
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