Governor of Ghana’s Central Bank, Dr Henry Kofi Wampah has touted the bank’s feat in maintaining the stability of the local currency between January and March 17, 2016.
According to the Governor, “Since August 2015, the local currency has been relatively stable, reflecting the tight policy stance, improved liquidity on the foreign exchange and renewed investor interest in domestic debt instruments.
“As at March 17, 2016, the cedi had depreciated by only 1.4% compared with a deprecation of 11.2% in the same period last year,” Dr Wampah disclosed.
The Governor, who was speaking at a press briefing in Accra yesterday after the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, said the stability of the currency was indicative of the effectiveness of measures adopted by the bank in its bid to arrest the depreciation.
Some Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) recently expressed satisfaction over the stability of the cedi for some weeks now, noting that the development had aided in the smooth running and management of their businesses.
According to the SME owners, the development was good for them as “the market returns have seen a remarkable increase.”
Indeed, following the 15% hike in transport fares and the implementation of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET), the stability of the local currency was in doubt.
The Governor further announced that the MPC had decided to maintain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 26%, citing high inflationary expectations, driven largely by the upward adjustments in utility tariffs and petroleum prices.
He cautioned that even though the cedi had shown signs of stability, other variables had to fall in place too.
“You need to look at all the factors because all though it appears that things are stabilising, we have seen that in the foreign exchange market there are still pressures in there; inflation is still high at 18.5% in February 2016.
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