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Prices to stabilise:BoG boss assures
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Jan 27, Ghanadot -
The Bank of Ghana has confirmed a further stabilization of
the economy this year and given the assurance that adequate
space will be created for businesses to plan.
Validating earlier projections by the government’s economic
planners, the governor of the bank, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur,
said the economy would this year see a further reduction in
inflation and interest rates and a general price stability
that would help businesses to plan, grow and create more
jobs.
“This year will be much better than the year gone by and we
are very confident about this,” Mr Amissah-Arthur has
assured.
President J.E.A Mills, as well as the Finance and Economic
Planning Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor had earlier affirmed
the government’s success in stabilizing the economy within
its first year and targeted this year as one for growth.
The Governor, who was accompanied by the Head of monetary
Policy Analysis and Financial Stability, Dr Benjamin Amoah,
and the Deputy Head of Banking Supervision, Mr Franklin
Belnye, said although Ghana suffered the secondary effects
of the global economic crisis, the country had managed to
put its house in order, stabilized prices and improved on
the balance of payment position.
He said the bank was working seriously towards ensuring
price stability by lowering inflation which would eventually
secure the value of the cedi and reduce any form of
financial hardships in the systems.
The Governor and his team took advantage of the visit to
answer a number of questions, ranging from re-denomination,
the printing of notes, interest rate, inflation, the
licensing of new banks, exchange rate policies of the
Central bank to how the bank was coping in the absence of a
board.
On the aftermath of the re-denomination, Mr Amissah-Arthur
said the exercise was relevant today as it has been at the
time, it was carried out, adding, that circulation of the
currency was also quite smooth.
He said, however, that the bank was still discussing a
strategy to encourage increased use of coins, as many
customers refused to accepted them at the banking halls,
with banks also hesitant to keep them in their vaults.
In the matter in which a former board member of the bank, Mr
Sam Okudzeto, had placed an injunction on the President from
constituting a new board, the Governor said it was a serious
issue that needed a speedy resolution.
Mr Amissah-Arthur said in spite of the difficult dilemma of
the bank. It had formed a panel of eminent bankers who
advised management to move in certain directions.
So far, he said, that advisory framework, whose advice would
later be presented to a substantive board, had been welcomed
by the constituents of the bank, including the development
partners such as the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
.
Ghanadot
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