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Ghana’s gross foreign assets stand at US$5.7 billion- BoG


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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