Until further notice, the Bank of Guyana will no longer be buying Trinidad and Barbados currency from cambios, a decision taken in the aim of stabilizing the foreign exchange market.
“We have temporarily stopped buying Trinidad and Tobago as well as Barbadian currency from cambios,” Governor of the Bank of Guyana Gobind Ganga told a press conference yesterday.
“However, individuals can still come to the central bank with legitimate transactions for these currencies,” he was quick to add.
The Bank of Guyana Governor explained that the press conference was called in the wake of reports from the Kaieteur News that there was a shortage of foreign currency here.
He explained that there was no chronic shortage of United States dollars as it was “a temporary situation” which he believed was “being sensationalized.”
Ganga posited, “We have dealt with situations where we have …intermittent shortages or seasonal shortages of foreign exchange in the financial system. We are currently working with the commercial banks to ensure that there is adequate amounts of foreign currency to meet legitimate demand.”
He pointed out that the Bank of Guyana as at today conducted a market analysis, which substantiates his stance that there should be no panic. “… Immediate demand is at a maximum of about $6 million. This has moved from a working bank balance, excluding commitment, from US$10.7 million on Monday …requests for foreign currency at that time was almost nothing. They had a surplus of $8.3 million,” he said.
“After this story would have broken, we would have had a number of requests, and as a result, you would find that not all of these requests would have been legitimate demands. We had requested from the commercial banks invoices for this demand and all you would have seen is some letters,” he added.
