Browsing: Bank of Ghana

The Consolidated Bank Ghana, (CBG), has continued to reject the Ghana Card as a medium of identity for customers who want to use it for financial transactions.

The Bank of Ghana’s latest forecast still depicts an elevated inflation profile in the near term, with inflation falling within the medium-term target band within a year.

These survey findings were broadly in line with observed trends in the February 2022 Ghana Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). The Ghana PMI, which is a measure of the rate of inventory accumulation by managers of private sector companies, declined below the 50.0 benchmark on the back of weak output and purchasing activity amidst rising inflation.

Developments in the banking sector over the first two months of 2022 show continued strong asset growth. Total assets stood at GH¢187.8 billion in February 2022, representing 23.5 percent annual growth, compared with 18.5 percent growth in the previous year.

The Sovereign credit rating downgrades of Ghana by Fitch and Moody’s led to “widened yield spreads on both cedi-denominated government of Ghana bonds and the country’s Eurobonds”, the Bank of Ghana has said.

The senior economist with databank indicated that, checks from some forex bureaus and commercial banks show that the cedi is gaining marginal strength against the dollar as at the time of interview, last week, as the local currency was trading averagely at GH¢7.84 to the dollar on the retail market, compared to about ¢8.06 couple of days before the Central bank’s announcement last week. However, the Bank of Ghana pegs the cedi to the dollar at ¢7.112 (mid-rate).

Bank of Ghana (BoG) has proposed using hardware wallets for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) dubbed ‘eCedi.’ The bank intends to make eCedi available for those who do not have a bank account or even internet access.

Fitch Ratings in a podcast said Ghana’s international reserves position has become very reliant on Eurobond issuance. Indicating that, Ghana is not in a situation where the government needs to constantly roll over hard currency debt or whose debt market is wholly reliant on non-resident investors. In supporting the Fitch’s position, the University of Ghana economist noted that, a careful look at the template that Ghana sent to the IMF in 1965 under the watch of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, which is a reflection of what has been happening over the years, there’s only one thing left which is keeping us from going to the IMF right now and that has to do with the depreciation of the cedi.

With the recent hike in petroleum prices in the country, year on year inflation is expected to rise further in the coming month as it would have a severe impact on both food and non food inflation of the Consumer Price Index, (CPI) basket.

Players in the real estate sector has shared their concerns leading to the rising Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in the construction sector attributing the phenomenon to the lack of attractive mortgages in the country.