The Bank of Ghana (BoG) says it has almost double its gold reserves under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP).
According to the BoG, the initiative had been innovative and strong in stabilising the economy and kept the exchange rate stable.
The Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison disclosed this on Monday in an answer to a question on the volume of gold BoG has purchased under the DGPP during
press conference after the 114th regular meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the BoG.
He explained that the BoG had so far bought about 13.7 tonnes of gold as reserves this year.
The Governor said when the BoG started the DGPP two years it had only 8.7 per cent tonnes of gold as reserves.
Dr Addison who is the chairman of the MPC said in total the BoG this year had bought gold to the tune of $1.4 billion/$1.5 billion under the DGPP, with the Gold for Oil Programme accounting for $700 million of the gold purchased
this year.
"The Domestic Gold Purchase Programme has been the single most important foreign exchange source in 2023 and nearly doubled the amount of money we have received from the IMF so we are very proud about that particular initiative," the Governor stated.
Highlighting on the country's growth projection for this year, Dr Addison said BoG projected that Ghana's economy would grow at 3 per cent; more than double what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected.
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The IMF under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) three-year $3 billion with Ghana had projected the country's economy will expand by 1.5 per cent this year, but the BoG believes the economy would grow at three per cent.
Dr Addison disclosed this in an answer to a question on the BoG's growth projection for the country this year.
He said the view of the MPC last year was that Ghana would see stronger growth this year than what the IMF had projected under the ECF.
"We have been looking at the Gross Domestic Product numbers that have been coming for the year so far, we are seeing a 3.3 and 3.2 per cent for the first and second quarters, we have also looked at the behaviour of our Composite Index of Economic Activity and we have seen a positive trend that indicator as well. We have also looked at the Ghana Purchasing Manager's Index - all these three things suggest to us that growth is probably more robust than expected in the IMF programme," he stated.
On inflation, the Governor said the BoG projected inflation to settle at 29 per cent by the end of 2023 after it peaked at 54.1 per cent in December
