Consumers, businesses less optimistic about future economic conditions – BoG
Consumers and businesses in the country feel less optimistic about Ghana’s future economic conditions, says the Central Bank.
According to the Central Bank, this is due to the significant softening (weakening) of both consumer and business sentiments about the economy.
Making the assertion at the Bank’s 107th MPC press briefing, Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Ernest Addison for instance, attributed the weakening of business sentiments to the impact of high cost of raw materials, rising labour costs, exchange rate volatility, and weak consumer demand.
“These conditions adversely impacted business optimism and prospects. At the same time, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which provides information on inventory accumulation and new orders at the firm level, also declined,” he added.
According to the Bank’s latest confidence surveys conducted in June 2022, consumer confidence index declined from 81.8% in April 2022 to 79.7% in June 2022.
Business confidence index also declined from 85.9% to 79.7% in April and June 2022 respectively.
Meanwhile, the updated Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) recorded an annual growth of 1.7 percent in May 2022, compared to 2.5 percent in April 2022 and 5.0 percent in December 2021.
The key growth drivers were exports, credit to the private sector, and tourist arrivals, while construction activities and industrial production contracted over the period.
The BoG’s CIEA measures changes in the level of economic activities and in this pandemic era, the economy’s recovery from the negative impacts of the Covid.
