Nii K. Sowa

   

The world is changing. Political systems are changing. Economic systems are changing. Ghana must certainly have the audacity to transform its economy.

October 5, 2016

© Nii K. Sowa

2

 



Economic policy management in Ghana has gone through several phases since independence. Until the 1980s, economic management was dictated by the political ideology of sitting governments rather than ideas reflecting national consensus. As the regimes vary from dirigiste socialist regimes to quasi-capitalist regimes economic policy management swayed between planned directcontrol systems through to near laisser-faire systems.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

3

The general objective of policy has, however, always been the improvement in the living standard of the Ghanaian, with increased output and stable prices as the main goals.  Unfortunately, with increased frustration sustained economic growth and development has eluded Ghana. 

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

4

After years of stabilization, macroeconomic slippages have become more common than desired.  The fiscal budget is out of sync, exchange rates are out of control, and inflation refuses to be tamed.  Growth is stunted.  It is imperative that we change the way we manage our economy.  This must start with the creation of a stable macroeconomic environment. 

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

5

Monetary management by the central bank, as a major arm of economic policy management in Ghana, has by law and practice, often focused on price stability.  This overarching duty of the central bank has not changed over the years.  What has changed is the way and manner in which that duty is carried out. 

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

6









The basic theory of monetary management assumes some relationship between the stock of money in the economy and the level of prices. The central bank then chooses an appropriate instrument it can control which will have an impact on the level of prices. In most cases, the central bank selects an intermediate target which also bears a close relationship with the ultimate target, the price level. Of course, in practice this is more complicated than we have presented, and there are several assumptions and qualifications which adds mystic to the process.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

7

 



In earlier years, the central bank used a system of direct controls to effect monetary management. This is based on an IMF financial programming model, which assumes that some broad monetary aggregate (M2 or M3) as the ‘intermediate target variable’ for monetary control, and that this in turn is connected in some reasonably predictable way with the ‘ultimate policy targets’ such as inflation and real output. The system of direct control assumes a stable demand for money function for the public and also that the central bank can effectively control the money stock.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

8

Table 1: Some Economic Outcomes Under The System of Direct Monetary Control (percent) 1981 1982

Real GDP

1983

1984

1985

1986 1987

1988 1989

1990

-3.2

-5.9

-3.9

8.5

5.1

5.2

4.8

5.6

5.1

3.3

100.4

16.7

142.4

6.0

19.5

33.3

34.2

26.6

30.5

35.9

Money (M2)

38.2

23.4

64.5

44.7

59.5

53.5

53.0

43.1

26.9

18.0

Interest Rates

19.5

10.5

14.5

18.0

18.5

20.5

23.5

26.0

26.0

33.0

Inflation

Source: Bank of Ghana

October 5, 2016

© Nii K. Sowa

9

As part of the SAP, the economy was liberalised The liberalisation process under the ERP entailed progressive deregulatory measures, culminating in the institutionalisation of a market based system of monetary management in early 1992  This focused largely on the use of indirect market-based instruments in the conduct of monetary policy.  

October 5, 2016

© Nii K. Sowa

10

The basic underlying model remained the IMF’s financial programming model.  However, with the Indirect Approach, the central bank relied on Open Market Operations as the major tool in regulating the Net Domestic Assets of the Banking system.  Thus, the central bank released or redeemed bills on the market as appropriate to keep growth in the money stock in check. 

October 5, 2016

© Nii K. Sowa

11



Economic outturn under the liberalized regime appeared better than in the controlled regime.  Growth in GDP improved.  Inflation under control but at only moderate levels.



One distinct feature of the period of the marketbased monetary control was the high rates of interest that prevailed in the country.

October 5, 2016

© Nii K. Sowa

12

Table 2: Some Economic Outcomes Under The System of Market-Based Monetary Control (percent) 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Real GDP

5.3

3.9

5.0

3.8

4.5

5.2

5.1

4.7

4.4

3.7

4.2

Inflation

10.3

13.3

27.7

34.2

70.8

32.7

20.8

15.7

13.8

40.5 21.3

Money (M2)

15.0

59.4

27.4

46.2

37.4

34.2

45.1

28.2

19.8

33.8 47.9

Interest Rates

20.0

30.0

35.0

25.0

45.0

45.0

45.0

37.0

27.0

27.0 27.0

Source: Bank of Ghana

October 5, 2016

© Nii K. Sowa

13

Central banking and monetary management was shrouded in mystery and secrecy.  Monetary management focused solely on price stability.  But the world has changed.  Now resource-based development has given way to knowledge-based development 

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

14







Government generally has several objectives it may wish to achieve: stable prices, closing a fiscal gap, lowering the rate of unemployment or increasing output. Thus at a particular time, while government may have convinced all economic agents that policy is working towards lower rates of inflation, it may suddenly initiate surprise inflation in order to achieve another objective, say close a fiscal gap. This is the time inconsistency problem.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

15

The solution to this time inconsistency problem lies in having a credible independent agency with the sole objective of implementing policies aimed at achieving the particular objective.  Hence, the need for the central bank to have operational independence. 

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

16

 





Another issue that needs some attention is the focus on inflation to the neglect of other gaps in the economy. In 1993, studies by American economist John Taylor argued that deviations of the central bank’s short-term rate from the long-term market rate can be explained by other gaps in the economy such as an inflation gap and/or an output gap. Thus, the central bank is offered a new policy instrument which can carefully be used to close other gaps in the economy Thus, the central bank afford to keep its eyes not only on just inflation, but be also sensitive to other gaps in the economy.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

17

The MPC process and Inflation targeting monetary management provide solutions to some of these policy issues  The Bank of Ghana Law (Act 612), enacted in 2002 offered the central bank the opportunity to institute these processes.  So the MPC was born in September 2002, made up of 5 members from the central bank and two external members nominated by the government. 

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

18







The main policy tool of the MPC is the policy rate an indicative interest rate around which all other rates operate. As an indicative rate the positioning of the policy rate sends signals to all economic agents on the tempo of economic activity and its expected impact on the rate of inflation in the immediate future. In this sense the policy rate does not carry the same interpretation as the erstwhile bank rate which was the rate at which the central bank extended advances to the commercial bank as ‘lender of last resort’.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

19









In setting the policy rate, the MPC evaluates developments in the economy and the threats these developments may pose to macroeconomic stability and consequently inflation. This generally involves a thorough review of fiscal, monetary, financial market, external trade, the real sector and price developments since the previous meeting of the MPC. Thus, the new monetary framework ensures that all information on the economy are allowed to feed into the monetary management decision-making process. Hence, data requirements of the new monetary framework are severe.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

20



A critical element in the analyses leading to the decision-making by the MPC is a review of the inflationary process in the country. The inflation report includes the following basic elements:  An analysis of the current inflation situation and the

main factors driving prices in the economy;  An exploration of possible threats from monetary, fiscal, financial sector developments, real sector developments as well as external sector developments; October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

21

 A forward looking view of inflation with the associated

uncertainties. Forecasts are generated using simple vector error correction models. The central path is then embodied in the form of FAN Charts with the upside factors and downside risks critically assessed;  The construction of a matrix of risk assessment using the available information on all aspects of the economy; and an inflation risk measure is derived from the matrix. An assessment of whether inflationary risks are rising or diminishing or rising based on the movement of this index. October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

22

Table 3: Economic Performance in the MPC-Era (2000-2006, end year data, percent) GDP Growth Rate of Treasury Ave. Lending Repo Reverse Repo Rate Inflation Bill Rate Rate Rate Rate. 2000 3.74 40.5 38.0 47.0 27.0 26.0 2001 4.20 21.3 27.6 43.8 27.0 26.0 2002 4.50 15.2 26.6 38.5 24.5 21.0 2003 5.20 23.6 18.7 32.8 21.5 20.5 2004 5.80 11.8 17.1 28.8 18.5 17.5 2005 5.80 14.8 11.5 26.0 15.5 14.5 2006 6.20 10.5 9.6 23.8 12.5 10.5 Source: Bank of Ghana, Research Department; Government of Ghana, Budget Statements; and Ghana Statistical Service, various, CPI Newsletters.

October 5, 2016

© Nii K. Sowa

23



On the whole, except for the recent times when economic performance has been abysmal, the economy Ghana has, on the average, exhibited robust economic fundamentals under the Inflation Targeting framework than under any other monetary management framework.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

24





Clearly, if one has to choose a monetary framework to support the transformation of the economy of Ghana, then the Inflation Targeting process comes highly recommended. The Inflation Targeting process comes with the openness and transparency of the policy process that is needed in today's world. Moreover, the transparency and openness of the process exemplified in the after-decision press conference adds to the credibility of policy.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

25



The Inflation Targeting process enhances policy credibility also by engaging the government and the central bank in a principal agency relationship. Thus, under the Inflation Targeting process there is accountability, as the agent must explain to the principal any deviations from the agreed targets.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

26



Under an Inflation Targeting process, the central bank can afford to look at the closure of other gaps in the economy, as they ultimately affect inflation expectations.

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

27

In short, the MPC process and the adoption of an Inflation Targeting framework has demystified monetary policy, enhanced policy credibility, and has brought central banking more in tune with the information age we are in.  I believe that such a monetary management framework coupled with an appropriate fiscal management can establish the bedrock to transform and sustain the economy of Ghana. 

October 5, 2016

(c) Nii K. Sowa

28

The Role of Monetary Policy in Transforming the Economy of Ghana ...

Sowa - The Role of Monetary Policy in Transforming the Economy of Ghana.pdf. Sowa - The Role of Monetary Policy in Transforming the Economy of Ghana.pdf.

1MB Sizes 1 Downloads 415 Views

Recommend Documents

The Role of Monetary Policy
ness cycles had been rendered obsolete by advances in monetary tech- nology. This opinion was ..... that can be indefinitely maintained so long as capital formation, tech- nological improvements, etc. .... empirical Phillips Curves have found that it

The Role of Monetary Policy
Aug 1, 2005 - http://www.jstor.org/journals/aea.html. Each copy of any .... a2/2 per cent interest rate as the return on safe, long-time money, be- cause the time ...

Kumah - Role of Fiscal Policy in Transforming the Economy.pdf ...
balance (ceteris paribus, notably private sector savings/investment). • Current account balance is difference between income/current. output and absorption.

Role of Governance in Transforming Ghana's Economy Presentation ...
Role of Governance in Transforming Ghana's Economy Presentation Final 250515.pdf. Role of Governance in Transforming Ghana's Economy Presentation ...

bank competition and economic stability: the role of monetary policy
Nov 18, 2010 - interpreted either as geographical complementarity (Petersen and Rajan, ..... the elasticity of the supply of capital is non-constant is related to ...

bank competition and economic stability: the role of monetary policy
Nov 18, 2010 - 4. In the model, the credit market equilibrium is based on two main ingredients: investors make a portfolio choice between a riskfree security (“money”) and risky ... equilibrium is one with no bank or firm entry.4 ...... default i

Deconstructing Monetary Policy Surprises - The Role of ...
a pure monetary policy tightening leads to lower stock market valuation.1 The reason is simple: ...... By construction, the impact responses satisfy the sign restrictions. ...... Technology shocks (ϵat+2) would have trouble capturing the fact.

The Audacity to Transform the Economy of Ghana - Plenary Charts ...
The Audacity to Transform the Economy of Ghana - Plenary Charts 20150526.pdf. The Audacity to Transform the Economy of Ghana - Plenary Charts 20150526.

The Role of Monetary Policy.pdf
Harris, Harry G. Johnson, Homer Jones, Jerry Jordan, David Meiselman, Allan H. Meltzer, Theodore W. Schultz, Anna J. Schwartz, Herbert Stein, George J.

Caution or Activism? Monetary Policy Strategies in an Open Economy
Monetary Policy Strategies in an Open Economy” ... duct experiments on a real economy solely to sharpen your econometric ... parameters vary over time.

Monetary Policy Transmission in an Open Economy - LSE Research ...
and University of Manchester for helpful comments and suggestions. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and should not be taken to represent those of the Bank of England. †Bank of England and CfM. Email: ambrogio.cesa-b

Monetary Policy Transmission in an Open Economy: New Data and ...
Dec 4, 2008 - high-frequency financial data ... VAR analysis: the impact of monetary policy on the economy. 4. ... Ingredients. • Use intra-daily data: 1 min (= τ).

Monetary Policy in an Estimated Open-Economy Model ...
We develop a structural model of a small open economy with gradual .... papers are estimated on data from Canada relative to the U.S., for instance, ..... ˆPd,i, ˆPdf,i ...... Lundvik, Petter (1992), “Foreign demand and domestic business cycles: 

Caution or Activism? Monetary Policy Strategies in an Open Economy
Intuition: Activist policy also makes foreign central bank learn faster, which is bad for domestic ... Important message: Optimal policy in open economy may be very different from a closed ... Expectations taken into account. – Coordination ...

Monetary Policy Transmission in an Open Economy - LSE Research ...
where t, τ denotes the exact time (in minutes) during day t when a monetary policy event ...... The objective of this section is to provide evidence on the transmission of exogenous ...... is to recover the structural form of the above VAR, i.e.:.

Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy
Book synopsis. The World Bank and New Mining Regimes in Asia critically investigates the particular role played by the World. Bank Group (WBG) in both ...

Signaling Effects of Monetary Policy - The Review of Economic Studies
information about aggregate technology shocks that influence the future ... monetary policy rule, making it hard for firms to tell these two shocks apart. ... more than five years.1 State-of-the-art perfect information models are shown to have too we

Signaling Effects of Monetary Policy - The Review of Economic Studies
information about aggregate technology shocks that influence the future dynamics of firms' ..... 2015; Paciello and Wiederholt 2014; and Matejka 2016) is to go beyond this ...... Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 25(2): 123—143. 38 ...

Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Money and ...
A limitation of this work is that it assumes an extreme degree of market in- ... prices, wealth portfolio allocation, distributions of money and capital, and welfare. ..... d, sb,ss; λ) ≡ −v(¯y, ks) + W[ms + ¯d,(1 − δ)ks;λ] − W[ms,(1 −

The Asymmetric Effects of Monetary Policy on Housing ...
Oct 30, 2013 - across the stages of economic development. 1 Introduction. The objective of this paper is to develop a model to study the effects of persistent.

Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Money and Capital ∗
A grid of 100 by 100 points and bi-cubic spline interpolation are used. 21Note that, given pk and the types of monetary transfers studied (proportional and lump-.

Monetary Policy Regimes and the Term Structure of ...
∗Corresponding author: London School of Economics, Department of Finance, Houghton Street, ... Email addresses: [email protected] (Ruslan Bikbov), ...

Monetary Policy Regimes and The Term Structure of ...
Mikhail Chernov, London Business School and CEPR. CREST. February 2009 ... What are the economic forces driving regime switches? – Monetary policy ...

The Effectiveness of Alternative Monetary Policy ... - Semantic Scholar
This paper reviews alternative options for monetary policy when the short- term interest rate is ..... Data source: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. demonstration that ..... additional predictive power beyond that contained in ft . On the other