The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the Bank of Ghana to prioiritise data regarding any further easing of the policy rate.
It also wants the easing of the base lending rate to remain gradual.
The Fund disclosed this in its Staff Review of Ghana’s Bailout Programme.
“With inflation pressures subsiding and the recent appreciation of the Cedi, the Bank of Ghana
(BoG) has appropriately begun a cautious monetary easing cycle. Any further easing should
remain gradual and data dependent”.
Since January 2025, the Bank of Ghana has cut the policy rate by 9.0 percentage points to 18.0%.
In collaboration with the Fund, BoG has developed and implemented a new structured foreign exchange operations framework to intermediate FX flows and smooth excessive market volatility, while accumulating international reserves.
The Fund said “The authorities have taken decisive steps to safeguard financial stability, including by implementing the strategy to restructure and reform state-owned banks, closing gaps in the crisis management and resolution framework, and pursuing a multi-pronged approach to reduce non-performing loans”.
The Bretton Woods institution further pointed out that the authorities have taken decisive steps to safeguard financial stability, including by implementing the strategy to restructure and reform state-owned banks, closing gaps in the crisis management and resolution framework, and pursuing a multi-pronged approach to reduce non-performing loans.
It added that important progress has been made to strengthen Ghana’s governance and public sector efficiency in line with the recently published Governance Diagnostic Assessment report, highlighting, that efforts to improve transparency and oversight need to continue, particularly related to public disclosure requirements and management of State-Owned Enterprises in the gold, cocoa, and energy sectors.
It stressed that ambitious structural reforms to help create an environment more conducive to private sector investment, and to enhance governance and transparency remain key to boosting the economy’s potential and underpinning sustainable job creation.