Ghana’s central bank kept its key interest rate at 27.00% on Friday as rising food prices spiked consumer spending for a second month.
The central bank said inflation had been relatively slow this year. “Inflation projections show a slightly elevated profile driven by high and unstable food prices,” the bank said in a statement.
Ghana, where elections are expected on Dec. 7, saw annual economic growth rise to 22.1 percent in October from 21.5 percent the previous month.
The bank said it expects inflation to reach its target of between 6 percent and 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, ahead of previous estimates that it would reach the target in the third quarter.
Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, defaulted on most of its $30 billion external debt in 2022 after years of over-borrowing.
President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government is in the final leg of a painful debt restructuring process having been granted a three-year $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
The central bank said on Friday that 4,444 commercial banks have accumulated sufficient capital to withstand the impact of external debt transfers.
The International Monetary Fund’s executive board is scheduled to meet on December 2 to approve the third review of the $3 billion aid programme, which will release $360 million in Ghana’s loan money.
