The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Akosua Manu claimed on October 5, 2023 that the Bank of Ghana’s actions have no effect on food inflation in Ghana.
She pointed out on TV3’s New Day after the opposition New Democratic Congress’ (NDC) #OccupyBoGProtest in Accra.
“If you are talking about some of the factors that affect inflation, including food, it’s not BOG that plants maize or plantain to determine that. It doesn’t come to them”, she said.
Upon further checks, Political Fact Ghana can confirm that the claim made by Akosua Manu is misleading.
Key macroeconomic indicators, including the nation’s inflation rate, are influenced by the actions of the Bank of Ghana (BoG). In fact, the BoG’s monetary policy has over the years sought to achieve some level of targeted inflation rate in order to achieve price stability.
The major goal of the Bank is to preserve price stability generally, according to Section 3(1) of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002(Act 612). The prices given include the rising cost of food.
According to the Monetary Policy Report for July 2023 for example, the BoG’s current monetary policy aims to achieve a medium-term inflation rate of 8% with a symmetric band of ±2%.
“The primary objective of the Bank of Ghana is to pursue sound monetary policies aimed at price stability and creating an enabling environment for sustainable economic growth. Price stability, in this context, is defined as a medium-term inflation target of 8±2 percent. This implies that headline inflation should be aligned within the medium-term target band for the economy to grow at its full potential without excessive inflationary pressures,” the report stated.
Furthermore, a portion of paragraph 26 of the current statement released by the BoG’s Monetary Policy Committee on September 25, 2023 states that; “On inflation dynamics, the continued maintenance of a tight monetary policy stance and relative exchange rate stability have contributed significantly to the disinflation process observed in the year thus far. Headline inflation has declined by a cumulative 14.0 percent since the peak of 54.1 percent recorded in December 2022.”
Albeit the Bank of Ghana does not grow crops, its monetary policy has a profound effect on the country’s overall price stability, encompassing both food and non-food products.