Can Dr. Paul Acquah’s ‘resilient’ Ghanaian Economy Withstand the Turmoil?
Since Bank of Ghana Act 2002 was enacted, bestowing independence to the central bank, various monetary policy committee meeting reports have been replete with ‘resilience’ and ‘robustness’ characterizations of the Ghanaian economy. On Monday 21st July, 2008, when the prime rate was increased further from 16% to 17%, citing fears of high inflationary fears and expectations, the Chairman of the committee, Dr. Paul Acquah, still maintained his position about the economy, albeit, on a lower tone as time passed by, from robust to fairly robust etc. (Let us bear in mind that brags about macroeconomic stability, stable currency, strong external position and lower inflation rates have been commonplace in their circles and the media, particularly the budget documents and state of the nation addresses, though not recently!). The Governor noted, then, that the latest information on the economy continued to show ‘sustained’ pace in economic activity and that the Bank’s Composite Index of Economic
