Bank of Ghana increases policy rate to 14.5%

• Posted on November 22, 2021November 22, 2021
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has increased the policy rate by 100 basis points from 13.5% to 14.5 5%.

The Policy rate is indicative of the rate at which the Central Bank lends to commercial Banks in the country .

In May  2021, the BoG lowered the policy rate by 100 basis points, from  14.5% to 13.5percent.  It was the first time in the year that the central bank had lowered the policy rate.

The central bank had since then maintained the policy rate at 13.5%  for two consecutive times.

Public Debt

Meanwhile Ghana’s Public debt now stands at 341 billion dollars, one billion up from the 340 billion recorded in August 2021. The 341 billion cedis represents a 77.8 percent of GDP.

This is according to latest data released by the Bank of Ghana. In the report, Domestic debt stands at 178.1 billion dollars while external debt is 163.7 billion dollars.

Economist Kwame Amoah Darkwah who has been going through the data says its time to take a look at reducing budget deficit targets and rationalize expenditure schedules.

-Asaase