Stanbic Bank predicts 6% growth rate

Stanbic Bank Ghana says growth rate for the Ghanaian economy is not expected to go beyond 6%, a rate which is 0.3% lower than government’s projected 6.3%.

Speaking at the 2017 Forex Risk Management at Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra, Regional West Africa Economist of Stanbic bank, Ayomide Mejabi asserted that growth of the Ghanaian economy largely hinges on the country’s oil revenues, adding that with the discovery of the TEN oil field, growth rate can be expected at a maximum of 6% this year.

“The last time there was actual oil flow for the first time that was 2011, growth moved from about 7% to 14% almost doubled at that time. Now we don’t have that much more oil coming up but we still suspect that we will see growth of 6%, I think this year” he stated.

Speaking on the performance of the cedi against the dollar, Mr. Ayomide Mejabi noted the cedi will make some gains against some foreign currencies including the US dollar following the expected increment on the current account deficit of GDP from 8% in 2016 to 25% by end of 2017.

Cedi Depreciation

Latest figures by the Bank of Ghana have shown that the cedi’s depreciation against the dollar for March 2017 is five times more than the rate of depreciation recorded in the same period in 2016.

The cedi has depreciated from 0.9 to 5% within the twelve months period. Also in March 2017, the local currency depreciated by 7.5 and 8% to the British Pound and Euro respectively.

According to the Summary of Economic and Financial data by the Bank of Ghana, the cedi has cumulatively gained 59 pesewas between March 2016 and March 2017. A dollar traded at 4 cedis 42 pesewas as at the 23rd of March 2017, compared to 3 cedis 83 pesewas in March 2016.

Also, the cedi’s depreciation in relation to the Euro has almost doubled from 4.5 to 8 percent between March 2016 and March 2017. Cumulatively, the cedi gained some 42 pesewas within the twelve months period.

Even though the cedi’s performance in relation to the British Pound showed almost no change in price as at 23rd March, the local currency witnessed depreciation as much as 7.5 percent after appreciating by 1.8 percent in March 2016.