Ghana’s recent improvement in foreign reserves has been driven by strong financial and monetary policy discipline, not necessarily a broad-based recovery in the real economy. That’s the key message from economist and University of Ghana professor, Patrick Asuming in an interview with the media. “The financial and the monetary side of the economy have performed better,” Prof Aning declared, emphasising that government’s aggressive moves to stabilise finances were yielding visible results. “Government has been very quick to try and put its finances in order, and that has reflected in the Treasury Bills rates.” He noted that Ghana’s reserve position has benefited from a combination of deliberate policy choices and fortunate global trends.
“A combination of policy direction in terms of our reserve position, as well as some luck in terms of what has happened with global prices of some of our export items, we have done well,” he explained. “That has boosted our foreign reserve position.” Prof Aning pointed out that the decision to “cash in” on those reserves at the right time also helped improve headline macroeconomic indicators.
However, he warned that the improvements, while real on paper, don’t tell the full story.
“If you look at how the economy ended in 2024, our macroeconomic indicators are looking way much better than where we were before,” he said.
