By: Antoinette Selorm Abba
The Bank of Ghana has announced plans to purchase foreign exchange arising from the voluntary repatriation of export proceeds from mining, and oil and gas companies to help shore up foreign exchange.
The Bank has also raised the policy rate by 300 basis points to 22 per cent in a historic move meant to ease growing inflationary pressure and contain the heightened fall in the value of the cedi.
They form part of measures to help arrest the cedi depreciation.
The decision was taken at an emergency Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, meeting yesterday, August, 17, 2022.
A statement from the Central Bank said beyond helping to slow down inflation and the cedi depreciation, the increment in the policy rate and the reserve requirement of banks is expected to feed into interest rates, leading to higher lending costs for households and businesses.
The release said the Bank of Ghana is working with the Ministry of Finance to agree on a cap on the overdraft.
