The Bank of Ghana (BoG) from next month will begin to publish the individual decisions of the members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the Governor, Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, has stated.
The members of the MPC decide the rate BoG should lends to commercial banks which in turn influences interest rate in the country.
The move, according to the Governor, was to promote transparency in the implementation of monetary policy.
Speaking at the just ended National Economic Dialogue (NED) in Accra, he said “When I assumed duty, one of the things I said was with the Monetary Policy Committee, you notice that up to now, you don’t get to hear why individual members opted for whether the rate should stay the same or should be increased or lowered.”
He added that, “You don’t get to hear that. All that you hear is it is a unanimous decision but in actual fact, there are divergent views, you know, through those sessions and so what we are going to be doing now is individual members’ submissions will be published.”
The two-day programme was on the theme: ‘Resetting Ghana: Building the Economy We Want Together.’
Dr Asiama during a panel discussion said the publication of the decision of the members of MPC would help the public to understand the basis of which “Certain actions were taken and for me, that is at the core of what we do.”
The Governor stated that the objective of monetary policy was to promote stability of the economy and growth to spur private sector growth.
“We want the private sector to understand that we are in the same boat. You know, sometimes you need to increase the rates not because you don’t want to see lower lending rates. You want to see lower lending rates but where there is a risk, for example, to the exchange rate, where there is a risk in terms of your inflation path, then you have to, you know, go on that tangent,” he explained.
Furthermore, Dr Asiama indicated that, “But in whatever we do, it is important that stakeholders understand and so therefore, members of the monetary policy committee will be accountable this time. The public will get to hear why they did what they did and we will publish it in the newspapers the day after the monetary policy committee meetings end.”
The Governor pledged that the BoG would work closely with the private sector, adding that under his tenure the BoG would meet with the private sector twice in a year.
Moreover, he pledged that henceforth when the BoG submits its report to Parliament, there would be a town hall meeting to engage the private sector on the report.
“Each time when we send those reports to Parliament, we are happy to engage in a town hall with the private sector. We will be there, all of us will be there, members of the MPC, we will be there and we are happy to take questions from the private sector,” Dr Asiama stated.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
