In the bank’s May, 2018 edition of the African Markets Revealed report, it said the easing was warranted because of strong disinflation that is currently underway.

“We expect the BoG to ease further this year, possibly cutting the policy rate by 300 bps. The bank’s easing bias is certainly warranted, given the strong disinflation underway, with headline inflation dropping to 9.6 per cent year-on-year in April from 10.4 per cent year-on-year in March,” the report said.

The African Markets Reveal report further noted that the decline in headline inflation was due to the decline in non-food inflation.

The report said “most of the recent decline in headline inflation is due to declining non-food inflation, which reached 10.6 per cent year-on-year from 11.8 per cent year-on-year in March. We expect the inflation trajectory to remain to the downside, with headline inflation bottoming out at 9.4 per cent year-on-year in December, before rising to 12.0 per cent year-on-year by end of the first quarter in 2019”.

Speaking on the report, Head of Global Markets at Stanbic Bank, Afua Bulley, said the private sector and the economy as a whole would benefit when the policy rate was reduced further.

“A reduction in the BoG’s policy rate also means a reduction in the lending rates of commercial banks. When this happens, businesses can access loans at relatively lower rates to grow their businesses. And when businesses grow, the economy grows as well,” she said.

The Bank of Ghana earlier in April this year introduced the Ghana Reference Rate (GRR), which forms the basis for pricing loans lent to the private sector. This was done to improve the transmission mechanism of its main policy levers.

The GRR is made up of the policy rate (40 per cent weight), the 91-d treasury bill rate (40per cent) and the overnight rate (20 per cent).

The African Markets Reveal is a monthly report issued by the Standard Bank Group, parent company of Stanbic Bank Ghana and focuses on the economic and financial outlook of African countries.

The report also reviews current economic situations and makes short to medium-term predictions about the economies of African countries.