The Bank of Ghana (BoG) in its latest Monetary Policy Report has revealed that confidence surveys conducted in June 2024 indicated some softening of consumer and business sentiments.

According to the central bank, exchange rate volatilities in May 2024 posed the biggest challenge to businesses, affecting their operations.

“The Business Confidence Index dipped to 88.8 from 92.6 in the same comparative period as businesses expressed concern about the cost implications of the rapid exchange rate depreciation observed in May 2024”, it said.

Similarly, the report showed that Consumer Confidence Index declined to 81.2 in June 2024, from 87.7 in April 2024, on account of high food prices and some uncertainties about future economic conditions.

“These findings were broadly in line with observed trends in Ghana’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which fell below the 50.0 benchmark to 49.7 in June 2024, from 51.6 in the previous month”, the BoG explained in the report.

Industrial Consumption of Electricity

The report further revealed that industrial consumption of electricity declined marginally by 1.2 percent in May 2024 to 295.71 gigawatts, as against 299.23 gigawatts recorded for the corresponding period in 2023.

In cumulative terms, electricity consumed by industries for the first five months of 2024 decreased by 7.0 percent to 1,399.80 gigawatts, from 1,505.47 gigawatts for the corresponding period a year ago.

Manufacturing Activities

According to the report, activities in the manufacturing sub-sector, gauged by trends in the collection of direct taxes and private sector workers’ contributions to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Pension Scheme (Tier-1), improved in May 2024.

In addition, total direct taxes increased by 43.7 percent (year-on-year) to GH¢4.11 billion in May 2024, relative to GH¢2.86 billion recorded in May 2023.

“Cumulatively, total direct taxes collected for the first five months of 2024 went up by 31.6 percent to GH¢22.19 billion, compared to ¢16.86 billion recorded in the first five months of 2023”.

 In terms of contributions of the various sub-tax categories, income tax (PAYE and self-employed) accounted for 48.8 percent, corporate tax accounted for 38.4 percent, while “other tax sources” contributed 12.8 percent.

Also, total private sector workers’ contribution to the SSNIT Pension Scheme (Tier-1) increased by 39.6 percent in year-on-year terms to GH¢470.92 million in May 2024, relative to GH¢337.23 million collected during the corresponding period in 2023.

Cumulatively, for the first five months of 2024, the contribution grew by 28.8 percent to GH¢1.97 billion, relative to GH¢1.53 billion recorded in the same period in 2023.

Construction Sector

The report showed that activities in the construction sub-sector, proxied by the volume of cement sales, increased by 10.6 percent (year-on-year) to 235,050.55 tonnes in May 2024, up from 212,584.38 tonnes recorded a year ago.

On a month-on-month basis, total cement sales increased by 13.2 percent in May 2024 compared with the 207,691.74 tonnes recorded in April 2024.

“However, for the first five months of 2024, sales declined marginally by 2.3 percent to 1,132,654.32 tonnes, from 1,158,854.69 tonnes for the same period of 2023. The relative improvement in total cement sales, year-on-year, was due to an uptick in construction activities during the review period”.