Ghana sees economic recovery backed by policy coordination: central bank

The Star

21 hours ago

ACCRA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama said Tuesday that the country's economy has been recovering, thanks to synchronized policy implementation between the central bank and the Ministry of Finance.
Asiama said during a business breakfast meeting that the local cedi currency had appreciated by more than 42 percent between January and June, reversing the declines of the previous two years.
According to him, gross international reserves stood at 11.1 billion U.S. dollars by the end of June, up from 8.98 billion dollars at the end of 2024, with a trade surplus of 4.14 billion dollars in the first four months of 2025, as exports grew by over 60 percent, mainly from gold, cocoa and crude oil.
Moreover, the governor said the West African country's current account surplus improved significantly to 2.12 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2025, compared to just 66 million dollars a year earlier, as remittance inflows remained resilient.
The governor said that the outcomes are more than just statistical improvements but mark a restoration of macroeconomic credibility.
He added that the outcomes were due to the firm monetary policy stance of the Bank of Ghana, raising and holding the policy rate at 28 percent, complemented by the government's prudent fiscal management.
Ghana's three-year reforms, supported by the International Monetary Fund, have passed four successive reviews, with the sovereign credit rating agency Fitch Ratings upgrading the country's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to "B-" from "restricted default" in June, following an upgrade by Standard and Poor's from "selective default" to "CCC+" in May.