BoG holds emergency MPC meeting on Wednesday over economic woes

According to the Central Bank, the emergency MPC meeting will review recent developments in the country’s economy.

The apex bank was originally scheduled to hold its next Monetary Policy Committee meeting from September 20th to 23rd, 2022.

The move by the Committee is believed to be mainly the result of the continuous increments in the country’s headline inflation, given that the use of monetary policy tools such as hikes in the Central Bank’s prime rate has failed to curtail increments of inflation and revert it to the Bank’s medium target band.

It is also believed that other pertinent issues such as the depreciation of the cedi as well as measures to check the country’s declining foreign reserves will also feature in the Committee’s discussions and review of the economy.

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, announced inflation for the month of July 2022, as 31.7%.

This is some 1.9 percentage points higher than the recorded 29.8% in June 2022.

The statistical service opined that the inflation rate for July was mainly driven by transport and utilities.

According to the GSS, the rise in inflation was due to increments in Transport (44.6%); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (43.0%); Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (42.0%); Recreation, Sport and Culture (33.8%); Personal Care, Social Protection and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (33.7%) and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (32.3%).

Food inflation went up to 32.3% in July 2022, from 30.7% in June 2022.

Again, non-food inflation also shot up to 31.3% in July 2022, from 29.1% the previous month.

Similarly, inflation for locally produced items was 30.9%, whereas inflation for imported items was 33.9%.

Meanwhile, the BoG per its statement issued on August 15, said it will announce the MPC’s decisions to the public at the end of the emergency meeting.