Economist predicts unchanged policy rate for seventh consecutive time

• The Bank of Ghana's MPC is likely to keep its policy rate unchanged at 14.5%, an Economics Professor has predicted

• The predication on based on the economic developments within the country in the past few months

• The Bank of Ghana's MPC has commenced its scheduled deliberations for its 100th meeting

An Economics Professor at the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has predicted the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana will keep its policy rate unchanged at 14.5 percent.

The Committee on May 26, 2021, commenced its third scheduled meeting of the year to review economic developments of the country to ascertain its monetary policy rate decision.

But Professor Peter Quartey believes his prediction, should it come to fruition, will be hinged on factors based on the economic developments of the country in past few months, which do not support a reduction in the policy rate.

“The factors that they normally look at are the exchange rate, inflation expectations and even economy, as in whether there is overheating in the economy and debt, and many other things.”

“Looking at the fundamentals and judging from the way the exchange rate has been relatively stable, inflation is likely to inch up marginally and I don’t see much overheating in the economy. My expectation is that the policy rate will be maintained again,” he told Citi Business News in an interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

At the Bank of Ghana’s 99th MPC meeting, it kept its monetary policy rate unchanged at 14.5 percent, a figure which was has remained the same since March 2021.

The policy rate is of key interest to businesses operating in the country as it influences the interest rate on loans and determines the rate at which the central bank lends to commercial banks.