The Bank of Ghana has promised to continue to pursue prudent policies to safeguard its primary objective of price stability.

According to the regulator, Ghana’s economy is entering a new phase of its macroeconomic developments with low inflation and well-anchored expectations, and as such its inflation forecast shows strongly the low inflation expectations going forward.

Addressing Journalists for Business Advocacy at a Financial Literacy Training Workshop, First Deputy Governor, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari said the mix of policies its implemented during the covid-19 pandemic have helped to moderate the impact of the pandemic on the economy and contributed significantly to a faster pace of economic recovery than anticipated.

“Amidst the pandemic and surge in inflation, the Central Bank has successfully steered inflation back into the target band, a process that was significantly helped by the extraordinary stability in the foreign exchange market in an election year while foreign exchange reserves level is at a record high”, he noted.

Ghana managed to record a measured positive growth in 2020 unlike many others that slipped into negative growth rates.

Dr. Opoku-Afari said “in the outlook, the signs of recovery are encouraging and would require careful monitoring and, where necessary, continuous comprehensive macroeconomic policies including defining a feasible fiscal adjustment path in the medium term to ensure fiscal and debt sustainability to anchor macroeconomic stability."

In that regard, he pointed out that a key issue going forward relates to the timing of withdrawal of policy support, adding, this would need to be carefully done so as not to jeorpardise the recovery process and thus the Central Bank will continue to monitor development and take appropriate decision.

In addition, he said a careful balancing act between unwinding the policy support would be needed by policy makers to ensure that stability in a post-pandemic environment is guaranteed.

“An important lesson from the pandemic [Covid-19] is that it has quickened the drive towards a cash-lite economy and this is likely to shape monetary policies going forward. The widespread use of mobile money was given an added boost when the Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) introduced the national Quick Response (QR) Code payment solution last year to simplify merchant payments and reduce the use of cash. The QR Code has since been made available to banks and payment service providers, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises to enhance business transactions”, he added.

Leveraging on financial innovations, the First Deputy Governor said the Bank of Ghana has also initiated processes for a pilot central bank digital currency to further move the economy towards a cash-lite environment.

“We anticipate that the Bank’s CBDC project would further advance financial inclusion, promote the efficiency and stability of the payment system, and foster competition in the financial sector”, he concluded.