Outlook for economy is positive, inflation is getting better – BoG Governor

The outlook of the economy is positive and the macroeco­nomic indicators are turning better, Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, has stated.

“We are quite confident about the outlook of the economy, as just last week we had a new reading of inflation, and this is the first time we have stayed on the disinflation path with inflation declining by three percentage points,” he said.

The Governor was speaking at the 47th meeting of the Committee of Governors of Central Banks of the West African Monetary Zone and the 62nd Ordinary meeting of the Committee of Governors of Central Banks of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The programme formed part of the 2023 Mid-Year Statutory Meetings of West African Institute for Financial and Economic Man­agement (WAIFEM), West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), and West African Monetary Agency (WAMA) organised by the Govern­ment of Ghana under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance and the BoG.

Inflation fell to 40.1 in August from 43.1 percent in July after it peaked at 54.1 in December last year.

Dr Addison, who delivered the keynote address, said Ghana in 2022 went through economic crisis in which the government request­ed an Extended Credit Facility of $3billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restore macroeconomic and debt sustain­ability.

He said presently, the govern­ment was focused on implementing measures to restore macroeconom­ic stability and promote inclusive growth.

“There are important lessons to be learnt from the ECF IMF pro­gramme which we will share with our colleagues in these meetings,” Dr Addison stated.

He said the meeting provid­ed the opportunity to assess the performance of the Economic Community of ECOWAS member states in their quest for a common currency.

Dr Addison said the pro­gramme, more importantly, represented an opportunity to re-examine the role of monetary institutions, such as WAIFEM, WAMI, and WAMA, in the road­map to the launch of ECO next year, and consider other economic and monetary-related development in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ).

“The question facing us at this meeting is what we shall do differ­ently after 36 years since the incep­tion of the ECOWAS Monetary Co-operation and 23 years since the second WAMZ was institut­ed,” he stressed, saying, “And this leaves next year a critical year in the lead up to the launch of the ECO under the roadmap in line with the new macroeconomic convergence,” he said.

The Director-General of WAMI, Dr Olorunsola Olowof­eso, said macroeconomic vulner­abilities had intensified across the WAMZ, triggered by high inflation, wider fiscal deficit and heavier debt burden, currency depreciation, and tight financial conditions.

“Recent political instability had added to the woes of pre-existing insecurity challenges in ECOW­AS, exposing the fragile recovery of the WAMZ economies to the risk of reversal of macroeconom­ic gains and creating an environ­ment of uncertainty,” he stated.