New BoG governor must resist govt influence – Economist warns

Economist Professor Patrick Asuming has called on the newly appointed Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Asiama, to take a firm stance in managing the country’s monetary policy.

He stressed the need for the Central Bank governor to resist undue government influence, particularly in financing fiscal deficits through excessive money printing—a practice that contributed to economic instability in the past.

Beyond monetary policy, Professor Assuming in a Citi Business News interview also highlighted the urgent need for decisive interventions to address the rising food inflation.

“I think we shouldn’t expect too much by way of thinking that the new governor has a magic wand that he can wave to bring inflation down. I think the current inflation that we are seeing is a little more entrenched and it’s more domestic and you get the sense that it is not as easy as raising the policy rate because it doesn’t seem like there’s much liquidity as much as cost of production that seems to be driving it.”

“That will require collaboration between the ministry of finance and the Bank of Ghana on the fiscal policy side. So I just hope that, he’s going to be strong and firm, stand up to and be firm especially when dealing with the government and make sure that the kind of money printing we have seen in the past doesn’t happen,” he said.

Professor Asuming was reacting to Ghana’s inflation rate easing to 23.5% in January 2025 after four consecutive months of rising inflation.

Despite the overall slowdown, food inflation remains a key driver, rising to 28.3% in January 2025 from 27.8% in December.

Meanwhile, non-food inflation continued its downward trend, dropping to 19.2% in January from 20.3% in the previous month.