The Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, has urged the new central bank governor to ensure that he maintains a healthy policy rate and ensure inflation keeps a downward trend in order to keep the local currency stable.
Dr. Abdul Nashiru Issahaku, resigned from his position as BoG governor last week, with the resignation taking effect from the beginning of this month with his replacement Dr. Ernest Addison announced barely 24 hours later.
Speaking in an interview with the Business and Financial Times, Dr. Assibey-Yeboah said: “Looking at the way our currency has suffered, we need somebody who will bring some stability; somebody who is grounded in the macro area; somebody who has experience having worked in such environment.”
The last decision taken by Dr. Issahaku was to cut the policy rate by 200 basis points to 23.5 percent which is the biggest rate cut taken in over ten years when the central bank announced a cut in the indicative lending rate by the same margin – from 14.5 percent to 12.5 percent in December, 2006.
The ex-governor had stated that the decision came about as a result of a steady decline in inflation which has since October last year, fallen consistently from 15.8 percent to 13.2 percent as at last month and is further projected to continue its downward trend after petroleum prices fell marginally, following the scrapping of some taxes in the price build-up.
The petroleum prices, which provide principal inflationary pressures, are expected to fall further in the next pricing window as the local currency, which had depreciated 8.6 percent as at March 10, recovered from its decline to record a year-to-date depreciation of 3.5 percent as at March 24.
Dr. Abdul Nashiru Issahaku was appointed the BoG boss in April, 2016 after his predecessor, Dr. Henry Wampah, also resigned citing personal reasons.
Prior to his appointment, Dr Issahaku was the Second Deputy Governor and Executive Board member with oversight responsibilities of nine departments including Economics, Statistics, Finance, Legal, Banking Supervision and Financial Stability.
Dr. Addison was, until his appointment, the Lead Regional Economist of the African Development Bank, at its Southern African Resource Centre. From 2003 to 2011, he served as the Director of Research at the Bank of Ghana and was the Chief Economist of the West African Monetary Institute from 2001 to 2002.
Dr. Addison, an Economics graduate of the University of Ghana, Legon, holds an M.Phil in Economics and Politics from the University of Cambridge, England. He also holds a PhD in Economics from McGill University, Canada.