In a press statement released by the Bank of Ghana’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today, 13th April, it was revealed that, the committee after its 50th meeting this week, has agreed to increase the monetary policy rate by 100 basis points. This means that, the New policy rate is 14.5%.
The committee went further to explain that, the upside risk of inflation over weigh the downside risk to growth and therefore increased the policy rate. Moreover, the BOG would reduce the single currency Net Open Position (NOP) of the banks from 15 per cent to 10 per cent and the aggregate NOP from 30 per cent to 20 per cent. This to them, is intended to improve the supply of foreign exchange by the banks to the market.
The question then is, would these decisions cause the right change in the market?
The press release further stated that, on growth, the Monetary Policy Committee agrees that the economic fundamentals remain strong since data from both the Ghana Statistical Service and the Bank indicate strong and broad-based economic growth.
The banking sector to the MPC was robust and there was buoyant performance on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
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