The Association of Ghana Industries has described Bank of Ghana’s move to maintain the monetary policy rate at 19% as critical since any increase in the benchmark interest rate will have worsen the plight of industry.

The Monetary Policy Committee put a break on its monetary policy tightening on the back of slow growth and rising inflation.

Speaking to Joy Business, President of the AGI, Dr. Humphrey Ayim-Dake, said the Central Bank in the coming days should work tirelessly on the factors driving inflation.

“They need to intensify measures to stabilise inflation. For us, maintaining the 19% is better than increasing it. For the BoG to maintain it now I presume they are monitoring others’ intervention”, he said.

Dr. Dake however bemoaned the rate at which government is failing to address concerns of industry in reviewing the benchmark value.

“We are tired of the re-echoing of same things over and over again. The government must listen to us”.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Ernest Addison on Monday, July 25, 2022, said “a detailed review of the consumer basket shows that although initially driven by supply-side shocks, the initial relative price changes have broadened to almost all the items in the consumer basket”.

This compelled the Bank of Ghana to maintain the policy rate at 1