The Bank of Ghana raised its benchmark monetary policy rate by 300 bps to 22% at an emergency meeting on August 17th, the largest rate ever and bringing borrowing costs to the highest since June 2017.

Three weeks earlier the central bank kept the rate at 19% saying it was appropriate to pause and observe the impact of the recent monetary policy measures already taken.

However, Ghana’s cedi currency continued to break record lows and updated figures showed inflation accelerated to 31.7% in July, the highest since 2003 and above market expectations.

Credit: trading economics