[ 2014-09-20 ]

Ghana to re-hit single digit inflation by second half of 2015
Accra, Sept 19, GNA - Bank of Ghana officials have
projected the nation’s economy is to hit a
single digit inflation rate again by the second
half of next year, subject to world market price
of oil and stability in the exchange rate.

Mr Mollison Narh, Second Deputy Governor of the
nation’s apex bank, on Thursday said there had
been positive signs of the open market operations
of the Central Bank in the recent weeks with an
appreciation of the local currency.

He told a Public Accounts Committee of Parliament
sitting in Accra that the country’s depleting
foreign reserves was responsible for the weakening
of the local currency.

The bank’s officials were before the PAC) to
clarify outstanding issues relating to the Auditor
General’s report covering foreign exchange
receipts.

“We are not able to support the market
adequately because of the low reserves levels that
we have. Once you reduce your reserves what
happens is that you are not able to support the
market as you would have and this actually impacts
on the performance of the currency from time to
time,” Mr Narh said.

He added that low reserves levels were not able to
support the local currency, and funds from the
reserve did no lie idle but are invested to
liquidate investments to meet the demands of the
commercial banks.

According to the Deputy Governor, there was no
“missing” US$600 million from the foreign
reserves of the bank which came up at an earlier
meeting of the PAC with officials of the bank.

The issue of the US$600 had come up at an earlier
meeting of the PAC with the BOG, but the Committee
was then not satisfied with the explanation
offered by Mr Yaw Abalo, and therefore insisted
that the Governor or any of his deputies appear
before the committee to answer questions how those
monies spent.

Mr Narh said d it was recently discovered that
there was a deficit in the receipts and payments
made in 2012, meaning that the bank paid more than
it received, and translated into 1.3 billion
against the 1.1million it received.

He stated that the central bank was not hiding any
information or any deals since some balances
within the reserves do not constitute a receipt of
payment.

“Something gold is not a receipt of payment. We
just re-value it so you see the reserves going up
not on the basis of a net payment receipt, but on
the basis of revaluation of the gold balances that
we hold,” he said.

He advised the media to be circumspect in its
reportage on the nation’s financials to protect
its image and integrity from foreign partners who
are monitoring and picking up sensitive
information about the economy.

Mr Ibrahim Deye, Ranking Member of the Committee,
has denied that the PAC on no occasion made it
known that the money in question was missing.

He said: “I want to make it very clear that
there’s no where the PAC said that 600 million
dollars was missing from the Bank of Ghana.”

Officials from the Ghana National Petroleum
Corporation also answered questions from the
Committee.

Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, Chairman of the Committee,
announced that it would begin its sittings in the
regions, beginning from the Western Region from
next week.

Source - GNA

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