The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana will hold its 71st regular meeting on Friday July 15, 2016 to review developments in the economy.
The committee, which is chaired by the governor of the central bank, Dr. Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku will conclude the meeting with a press conference on Monday July 18, 2016 to announce the decision of the MPC on the appropriate positioning of the Bank’s policy rate.
Analysts are concerned that interest rates could inch up further at the end of the MPC meeting
The concerns are critical in the wake of the fact that businesses are grappling with high cost of credit, multiplicity of taxes, high utility tariffs and unreliable power supply.
Additionally, Ghana’s peers in the sub region continue to record positive economic indicators, thus attracting foreign investments into those countries.
While Ghana’s Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) stands at 26 per cent, that of Ivory Coast and Senegal are 3.5 per cent each while Kenya boasts of 10.50 per cent.
Even before the MPC meeting, Ecobank Research is predicting an unchanged policy rate, while investment firm, InvestCorp, believes the policy rate will reach an all-time high of 27.50 percent by the end of December 2016.
With its inflation rate of 18.9 percent, Ghana has the highest inflation rate in Africa while Ivory Coast and Senegal have 0.9 and 1.3 per cent respectively.
Kenya’s inflation rate stands at 6.45 per cent.