By: Fred Yaw
Sarpong- Daily Express
Bank
of Ghana (BoG), the regulator of the banking industry has announced that Ghana
currently has gross foreign assets of US$5.7 billion which can sustain the country
for a period of 3.4 months of imports.
According
to the central bank, there are other inflows which expected to beef up to the
US$5.7 billion reserve.
Dr.
Kofi Wampah, the Governor of the central bank announced this at a news
conference after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) review of the state of the
economy.
The
governor stated that the central bank was expecting US$800 million from cocoa inflows into the country. He also
mentioned US$50 million from the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).
“With all these coming into the country in addition to the
regular monthly inflows such as gold export, cocoa and manganese among others to
our reserve will be better for months,” said the governor.
He
said for the first 10 months of 2015, the overall balance of payments position,
as measured by the change in net international reserves, worsened to a deficit
of US$378 million, compared with a surplus of US$181.6 million for the
corresponding period of 2014.
“The
current account balance for the first nine months recorded a deficit equivalent
to 5.4 percent of GDP,” said Dr. Wampah.
He
said fiscal consolidation remains on track because for the first nine months of
2015 the overall budget balance registered a cash deficit of 5.1% of GDP which
is within the programme target of 5.7%.
“Maintaining
the fiscal consolidation efforts would complement the tight monetary policy
stance for the attainment of the medium term inflation target. This would, in
turn, help create conditions for long term sustainable growth,” he added.
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