Monetary Policy and Financial Sector Reform for Employment Creation and Poverty Reduction in Ghana

Abstract

This Country Study summarizes the findings and recommendations of a UNDP-supported study on the linkages among central bank policy, the financial structure and employment outcomes in Ghana. The study maintains that monetary policy must be coordinated with financial sector reforms in order to generate poverty-reducing employment. Its analysis highlights serious problems of restrictive inflation-targeting, a high real interest rate policy and insufficient lending of financial resources for productive private investment. In response, it recommends that monetary policy in Ghana should be specifically geared to promoting economic growth and employment along with maintaining moderate levels of inflation. Targeting such real variables, it maintains, will imply regular collection of data, such as on employment trends. In order to lower the cost of borrowing and foster greater access to credit, the study offers several policy recommendations, including credit guarantee schemes, reducing interest rates on government securities, using asset-based reserve requirements to direct credit and forging stronger links between formal and informal financial institutions. The study’s main point is that monetary and financial sector policies should be recast as crucial instruments of development and be well integrated into Ghana’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. (...)