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The Bank of Ghana has announced that the growth of the country's domestic market remains relatively strong.
The Central Bank said that the negative output gap seemed to be abating at a relatively modest pace.
At a press conference held yesterday in Accra by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the governor of the BoG, Dr. Ernest Addison, said medium-term growth prospects were good with the preparation of new oil wells, notably those of AKER Energy. which had submitted a $ 4.4 billion plan for the development of an offshore field, the reopening of the Obuasi mine activities and the implementation of government initiatives focused on growth.
He added that "all of this should improve medium-term growth prospects," he said, noting that the Committee considered the external sector's position to be strong because of the persistence of the trade surplus. the first quarter of 2019. the deficit continued to decline.
International reserves
According to him, the position of Ghana's gross international reserves has improved and should provide a cushion for the cedi, which is already making substantial gains against all major currencies, as sentiment diminishes.
Rate of growth
The overall GDP growth for 2018 is expected to reach 5.6%, while that of the non-oil sector is expected to increase by 5.8%, with an average growth of 6.1% for the first three quarters of 2018.
It was generally expected that the annual target of 5.6% would be achieved.
Mr Addison said "by 2019, GDP growth should reach 7.6%".
Economic activity
He stressed that "the pace of economic activity induced by the new composite index of economic activity of the Bank (CIEA) remained high, recording an annual growth of 3.2% in January 2019, compared to 2.4% in December 2018.
The governor explained that "during the same period of 2018, the CIEA recorded a growth of 3.6%".
He revealed that the January increase was mainly due to growth in value-added tax (VAT), industrial electricity consumption, port activity and imports.
Increasing consumer confidence
Addison revealed that the latest BoG polls in February 2019 showed an improvement in consumer confidence, although the recent depreciation of the cedi had affected corporate sentiment.
He said: "Two inflation surveys published by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) since the January MPC meeting showed that inflation was still in the medium-term target range. Inflation slowed in January to settle at 9.0%, up from 9.4% in December 2018, but rose slightly to 9.2% in February 2019, under the effect from the rise in non-food inflation. "
According to him, "the underlying inflationary pressures, measured by the bank's core inflation, have continued to soften and inflation expectations remain well anchored".
– Daily guide
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