Ghana's monetary policy committee likely to hold prime rate at 21%

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) is expected to hold its prime rate steady at 21% when it announces its interest-rate decision on Wednesday. 

Although recent Ghanian cedi (GHS) depreciation will likely add to inflationary pressure, and food prices over the coming months will make a less favourable contribution to overall inflation, this should be partly offset by general policy tightening under Ghana's IMF programme. 

One of the key requirements of the programme is a cap on BoG deficit financing, to 5% of the previous year's revenue in 2015, and to 0% of revenue from 2016. 

Previous BoG decisions have focused on fine-tuning the market interest-rate corridor around the prime rate. 

"We expect the +/-3% corridor to be maintained, a review of commercial bank base lending rates is anticipated this year", said Standard Chartered in a report on Tuesday.