The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has kept its key lending rate to commercial banks unchanged.
It left the rate at 27 per cent after a meeting to review developments in the economy over the past two months.
Speaking at a press conference, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, said challenges of inflation are under control, hence the need to hold the rate at 27 percent.
He announced that the bank’s latest inflation forecast shows a steady decline and return to the path of disinflation, with an extended time horizon of achieving the medium-term target of 8±2 percent.
“Under the circumstances, the Committee decided to keep the monetary policy rate unchanged at 27.0 percent”, he said.
He cautioned that the inflation profile remains elevated, largely driven by food price movements, especially in the last quarter of the year.
Recounting some activities that posed a threat to prices, Dr. Addison said the climate-related factors, including the dry spell in some parts of the food-growing regions of the country and the late onset of rains, negatively affected production, while supply chain weaknesses generally affected food prices.
“While the inflation outturn for the year 2024 5 deviated from the target, it is expected that the disinflation process will resume, contingent on renewed efforts at fiscal consolidation, which is anticipated in the new administration’s economic policy agenda and the yet-to-be-presented 2025 budget statement.”