Business News of Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Source: --

Ghana inflation falls to 9.52% in June

Ghana’s inflation for the month of June has hit 9.52%, the Ghana Statistical Service has announced.

This is the 12th consecutive time that the country’s inflation has dropped. Inflation for the month of May stood at 10.68% fueling expectations that the Bank of Ghana will cut its policy rate further down from the current 15%. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the central bank has been meeting since Monday this week to review the economy and to determine a new policy rate to be announced at a press conference on Friday in Accra.

The Vice President John Mahama has said Ghana’s economy will hit single digit inflation by September 2010. And the governor of the Bank of Ghana, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur told ghanabusinessnews.com that looking at the trend, the economy was likely to hit single digit much earlier than September.

Mr. Mahama was reported by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) as saying that the drop in inflation and the stability of the national currency, the cedi are due to the “prudent economic management of the government that included 30% cut-backs on government expenditure.”

The Bank of Ghana also predicted a GDP growth of above 20% by 2011 following commercial production of oil in the country by December 2010. Ghana’s GDP growth was projected to be within the levels of 5% to 5.7% in 2010.