The Financial institution of Ghana’s (BoG) current Financial Coverage Report has revealed that confidence surveys from June 2024 present a noticeable decline in shopper and enterprise sentiments.
The central financial institution stories that change fee fluctuations in Might 2024 have been the largest problem for companies, considerably impacting their operations.
“The Enterprise Confidence Index dipped to 88.8 from 92.6 in the identical comparative interval as companies expressed concern about the price implications of the speedy change fee depreciation noticed in Might 2024”, it mentioned.
In Might 2024, the Cedi traded at GH¢13.26 buying and GH¢13.28 promoting costs at interbank charges however traded at GH¢14.05 on the foreign exchange market.
The report additionally highlighted a drop within the Client Confidence Index, which fell to 81.2 in June 2024 from 87.7 in April 2024.
This decline was attributed to rising meals costs and rising uncertainty about future financial situations.
“These findings have been broadly according to noticed traits in Ghana’s Buying Managers’ Index (PMI), which fell beneath the 50.0 benchmark to 49.7 in June 2024, from 51.6 within the earlier month”, the BoG defined within the report.
Industrial Consumption of Electrical energy
The report additional revealed that industrial consumption of electrical energy declined marginally by 1.2 p.c in Might 2024 to 295.71 gigawatts, as in opposition to 299.23 gigawatts recorded for the corresponding interval in 2023.
In cumulative phrases, electrical energy consumed by industries for the primary 5 months of 2024 decreased by 7.0 p.c to 1,399.80 gigawatts, from 1,505.47 gigawatts for the corresponding interval a 12 months in the past.
Manufacturing Actions
In accordance with the report, actions within the manufacturing sub-sector, gauged by traits within the assortment of direct taxes and personal sector employees’ contributions to the Social Safety and Nationwide Insurance coverage Belief (SSNIT) Pension Scheme (Tier-1), improved in Might 2024.
As well as, complete direct taxes elevated by 43.7 p.c (year-on-year) to GH¢4.11 billion in Might 2024, relative to GH¢2.86 billion recorded in Might 2023.
“Cumulatively, complete direct taxes collected for the primary 5 months of 2024 went up by 31.6 p.c to GH¢22.19 billion, in comparison with ¢16.86 billion recorded within the first 5 months of 2023”.
By way of contributions of the assorted sub-tax classes, earnings tax (PAYE and self-employed) accounted for 48.8 p.c, company tax accounted for 38.4 p.c, whereas “and different tax sources” contributed 12.8 p.c.
Additionally, complete personal sector employees’ contribution to the SSNIT Pension Scheme (Tier-1) elevated by 39.6 p.c in year-on-year phrases to GH¢470.92 million in Might 2024, relative to GH¢337.23 million collected throughout the corresponding interval in 2023.
Cumulatively, for the primary 5 months of 2024, the contribution grew by 28.8 p.c to GH¢1.97 billion, relative to GH¢1.53 billion recorded in the identical interval in 2023.
Building Sector
The report confirmed that actions within the development sub-sector, proxied by the amount of cement gross sales, elevated by 10.6 p.c (year-on-year) to 235,050.55 tonnes in Might 2024, up from 212,584.38 tonnes recorded a 12 months in the past.
On a month-on-month foundation, complete cement gross sales elevated by 13.2 p.c in Might 2024 in contrast with the 207,691.74 tonnes recorded in April 2024.
“Nonetheless, for the primary 5 months of 2024, gross sales declined marginally by 2.3 p.c to 1,132,654.32 tonnes, from 1,158,854.69 tonnes for a similar interval of 2023. The relative enchancment in complete cement gross sales, year-on-year, was resulting from an uptick in development actions throughout the evaluate interval”.