Just as Nigeria announced a 15 straight month maintenance of its MOR at 12% Ghana on the other hand increased their’s to 16% from 15%. The foreign media attributes this mostly to Ghana’s quest to halt the declines in the value of the Cedis which has declined 14% in the last one year and 4.4% year to date.
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana has increased its policy rate sharply for the first time in several months. The Bank upped its benchmark lending rate to 16 percent from 15 percent. Announcing the rate at a news conference on Wednesday, Central Bank Governor, Dr. Kofi Wampah said the increment was influenced by threats to economic growth suffering, inflation and dip in business confidence. The governor also announced the implementation of some new policy measures to stabilize cedi and also a new way of calculating base rate from July.