Market News
Ghana central bank delivers another larger-than-expected rate cut - REUTERS
BY Emmanuel Bruce and Christian Akorlie
Key Points
- Bank of Ghana cuts rate by record 350 basis points
- Cumulative 650 basis points cut over two meetings
- Ghana’s consumer inflation expected within bank’s target
ACCRA, (Reuters) – Ghana’s central bank delivered another larger-than-expected rate cut on Wednesday, citing a sustained decline in inflation and an improving macroeconomic outlook in the West African gold and cocoa-producing nation.
The bank slashed its main interest rate by a record 350 basis points to 21.5%. A Reuters poll of eight analysts had forecast a cut of 200 basis points to 23% after a 300 basis point reduction at the previous Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in July.
“The monetary policy committee has obviously been emboldened by the anticipation that inflation will very soon reach the target range of 8-10%. Overall, this move is good for the economy, especially the real economy sector,” said economist Leslie Dwight Mensah from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama told reporters that Ghana’s macroeconomic outlook had improved over the past months, with the economy demonstrating strong growth.
Ghana’s economy expanded by 6.3% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2025, up from a revised 5.7% in the same period last year, with strong improvement in the services sector.
Headline inflation fell for the eighth straight month to 11.5% in August, the lowest since October 2021.
“Given the current state of macroeconomic conditions, the view of the committee was that inflation would continue to ease in the near term,” Asiama said.
“In the outlook, headline inflation is expected to drop to within the median-term target of 8 plus or minus 2 per cent by the end of the fourth quarter,” he added.
