The Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) is appealing to the Bank of Ghana to either maintain or lower the monetary policy rate in order to alleviate borrowing costs and bolster business operations.
This request is made in anticipation of today’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting, during which the central bank is anticipated to reveal its forthcoming policy decision.
At present, the policy rate is set at 18 percent.
GUTA President Clement Boateng asserts that either holding or reducing the policy rate would offer relief to traders and enhance access to credit, as businesses continue to face elevated financing costs.
“I do not foresee any increases in the monetary policy rates. If anything, it should remain unchanged. However, we have consistently pointed out that when there is a reduction in the monetary policy, we do not observe a corresponding decrease in the lending rates. This has been our ongoing request. I believe that during the last announcement of the monetary policy rate, we only witnessed a slight reduction in the reference rate.”
“The reference rate was approximately 16.9 and was lowered to around 16.6, which is negligible and does not yield any beneficial effect regarding the lending rates. Therefore, our expectation is for the Monetary Policy Committee to either maintain the existing policy rate or reduce it, so that we can observe a corresponding decline in the lending rate, enabling businesses to borrow and subsequently expand, thereby creating more employment opportunities,” he stated in an interview.
