The new Governor of Ghana’s central bank, the Bank of Ghana (BoG), does not intend to make any immediate radical changes in the country’s fiscal regime inspired by former governor Dr Paul Acquah. The central bank under the eight-year leadership of Dr Acquah introduced key reforms including the redenomination of the cedi and inflation targeting, to consolidate the banking sector and the economy. But in his first ever interview with Joy Business after being named governor, the new central bank boss, Dr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur said he would confer with his research team to strengthen the policies already running the system but hinted he is open to alternatives. “We are in a stable evolving situation, there is not going to be major reversals of policy immediately,” he told Joy Business editor Fred Avornyo. Dr Amissah-Arthur, who started work September 01, 2009, also appears to have an open mind towards the use of the prime rate to fight inflation. “Basically, the question we are asking is that if inflation targeting has failed to achieve the result of bringing inflation down to single digit then shouldn’t we look other instruments? …yes we’ll look for other instruments, we’ll examine all the possibilities and, given the targets that we have, we’ll look at the policies, we’ll look at the instruments that can achieve them.” Prime rate dip Dr Amissah-Arthur has also expressed optimism the prime rate – which underlines the base rates charged by commercial banks – could drop even further. A decrease in the prime rate, which currently stands at 18.50%, means a dip in the interest rates charged by the commercial banks on loans. Dr Amissah-Arthur said the prime rate, which is fixed by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of BoG, could “go down some more because energy prices are stable” while food prices are also expected to drop during this time of the year. The new BoG Governor has served in many capacities including Deputy Minister of Finance in the NDC administration from April 1993 to March 1997 and after retiring from public office has worked on a number of consultancy assignments. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana