(Xinhua) -- Ghana's central bank announced Monday to stay its benchmark policy rate at 19 percent to observe the impact of previous hikes on inflation and other macroeconomic indicators.
Ernest Addison, governor of the Bank of Ghana, made the announcement at a press briefing after the bank's 107th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
"Inflation has persisted on an elevated path. A detailed review of the consumer basket shows that although initially driven by supply-side shocks, the initial relative price changes have broadened to almost all the items in the consumer basket," said Addison.
He added that the sharp increases in inflation in April, May, and June reflected the pass-through effects of increases in ex-pump petroleum prices, transport costs, currency depreciation, and food prices.
Similar to the observed trends in headline inflation, the governor added that the underlying inflation pressures had also risen sharply.
The governor, however, said the MPC noted a deceleration in the rate of increase in inflation in the last reading.
