Bank of Guyana temporarily suspends buying of TT and Barbados Currencies

The lack of foreign exchange currency in Trinidad and Tobago is also being filtered into the local economy. This is according to Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Gobind Ganga who hosted a Press Conference today.

According to the Governor, similar to what was reported in Jamaica in November, businesses or individuals are buying US dollars in Guyana and creating additional demand for the currency.

This has caused a large influx of TT dollars into the economy. “As of November, TT currency would have been over TT$38M…that would have increased from TT$9.1M in 2014 to (over) TT$38M this year. The Bajan would have increased from (over) B$8M in 2014 to almost B$13M” Ganga said.

During today’s press conference, the Governor noted following the publication of a story by Kaieteur News on Monday, several persons would have approached commercial banks for foreign currency, however, some failed to provide an invoice or show that the sum requested is legitimately needed.

As such, he is urging media operatives to be more responsible in their reporting.

“We have conducted as of today, a market analysis ad find that immediate legitimate demand is at a maximum of $6M and this has moved from a working bank balance, excluding commitments from US$10.7M on the December 05, 2016…request for foreign currency at that time was almost nothing, they had a surplus of $8.3M Us dollars” he outlined.

He noted that there are intermittent or seasonal shortages of foreign exchange in the financial system from time to time.

Ganga said the Bank of Guyana is currently working with Commercial banks to ensure that legitimate demands for foreign currency are met, adding that while there is no shortage of foreign exchange currency in the local banking sector, a number of reasons may have contributed to persons being unable to access foreign exchange.

He outlined instances where persons would have requested foreign currency, however, is unable to provide an invoice or convince the bank that the money is legitimately needed. He added that there are cases where commercial banks choose to serve their customers as opposed to random persons who come off the streets and make the requests.

He is urging banks to desist from hoarding currencies as well.