Consumer and business confidence decline by 0.7% and 9.6% – BoG
The Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) business and consumer confidence surveys, conducted in February 2022, revealed a softening [weakening] of sentiments with business confidence declining by a greater extent.
While consumer confidence dipped by 0.7 percentage points, business confidence declined by 9.6 percentage points.
According to the apex bank, consumers were mainly concerned about the persistent increases in fuel prices, increases in transportation fares and rising inflation.
Businesses, in addition to these factors, were also concerned about the impact of these on macroeconomic conditions and on their short-term targets and profitability for 2022.
“These survey findings were broadly in line with observed trends in the February 2022 Ghana Purchasing Managers Index (PMI),” added Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Ernest Addison.
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The Ghana PMI, which is a measure of the rate of inventory accumulation by managers of private sector companies, declined below the 50.0 benchmark on the back of weak output and purchasing activity amidst rising inflation.
The decline in business and consumer confidence surveys for February 2022 as noted by the BoG, was on the back of a lower Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) recorded for January 2022.
The BoG’s CIEA recorded an annual growth of 4.2 percent compared to the 13.9 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2021, this therefore marks a 9.7 percent decline in the CIEA .
The 4.2 percent annual growth recorded in January 2022, reflects some improvements in the Bank’s updated Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA), however, at a slower pace than in 2021.
The key drivers of the index during the period were industrial production, exports, credit to the private sector and airpassenger arrivals.
Consumption of goods and services, and construction activity, however, slowed down, acting as a drag on the index.
