The economy of Ghana remains robust but …



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  The economy of Ghana remains robust but ...

M. Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister, said Ghana's economy remains robust despite the prevailing headwinds, particularly with domestic revenue mobilization and volatile markets. He stated, however, that preliminary estimates of the first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in June 2018 indicated that real GDP had increased by 6.8% in the first quarter of 2018. that the industry sector also recorded the highest growth rate of 9.6%, compared with 11.8% in the same period in 2017, followed by the service sector with a growth of 5.2% . percentage, higher than that of 3.3 percent recorded in the same period in 2017, while the agriculture sector grew by 2.8 percent, compared with 8.4 percent recorded at the same time in 2017.

M. Ofori-Atta said In his presentation of the Mid-Year Budget Policy Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Parliament in Accra, on Thursday,

it takes stock of the situation. Macroeconomic developments in 2018. The rate of monetary policy, he said, was also reduced by 300 basis points (bps), from 20% in January 2018 to 17% in January 2018, as because of the relative stability of the macroeconomic environment. May 2018, while the interest rate on the money market for the first five months of 2018 has generally dropped from one year to the next.

The Minister of Finance stated that during the period under review, the average interest rates of the 91 T-Bill decreased from 13.69% in May 2017 to 13.35% in May 2018, while the T-Bill of 182 days fell from 15.35% in May 2017 to 13.85% in May 2018.

He explained that the gap between lending rates and debtors increased by 26bp year-on-year, from 14.79% in May 2017 to 15.05% in May 2018, while the average base rate of banks fell by 389bps from 26.25% He again stated that the disinflationary trend observed in 2017 continued during the first five months of the year, largely supported by the stability of the foreign exchange market and generally favorable macroeconomic developments. He said the latest Bank forecasts suggest that inflation will remain in the medium-term target of 8 ± 2% over the last three quarters of 2018, barring any unforeseen shocks.

In the Forex market, the cedi of Ghana He noted that the provisional trade balance for the period from January to May declined by 0.8% and 1.3% against the US dollar and the sterling, respectively, but it is 0.5% stronger against the euro. The year 2018 recorded a surplus of $ 1,354.89 million, or 6.59% more than the surplus of $ 1,271.09 million recorded over the same period in 2017. [19659003Heexplainedthattheimprovementinthetradebalanceresultedinexportsofoilandnon-traditionalproductsthatexceedthevalueofimports

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