Bank of Ghana maintains interest rate

The Bank of Ghana is keeping its interest rate unchanged at 14.5%. This comes after it concluded a $1 billion repo facility with the U.S. Federal Reserve to boost the country’s foreign exchange.

A repurchase agreement (repo) is a short-term borrowing for dealers in government securities.

According to the Bank, Ghana’s economy will grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic to 2% or 2.5 %.  The Bank’s governor, Ernest Addison forecast GDP growth of 6.8% in 2020 from 3.45 N 2019.

Advertisement

However, in Q1, the widening budget deficit of 1.04% occurred due to a reduction in revenue. Addison adds that the shortfall in oil price and other tax revenues due to global movement restriction had left the country with a large financing gap.

The bank had triggered an emergency financing provision allowing it to increase purchases of government securities, he said, and it had purchased 5.5 billion Cedis or $958 million of the government’s COVID-19 relief bond.

He said the bank stood ready to continue the assets purchase programme of up to 10 billion Cedis.

Author

Share the Story
Add a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Keep Up to Date with the Most Important News

Weekly roundups. Sharp analysis. Zero noise.
The NewsCentral TV Newsletter delivers the headlines that matter—straight to your inbox, keeping you updated regularly.