{"id":98924,"date":"2025-10-17T04:56:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98924"},"modified":"2025-10-17T04:56:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:56:00","slug":"were-rebuilding-foreign-reserves-not-burning-them-bog-governor-clarifies-at-imf-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98924","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re rebuilding foreign reserves, not burning them \u2013 BoG Governor clarifies at IMF Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 45 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Asiama Pandit, has dismissed claims that the central bank is depleting the country\u2019s foreign reserves through market interventions.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview with the IMF at the ongoing IMF\/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC on October 16, he insisted that the Bank of Ghana is rebuilding its reserves, not burning them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there were allegations about whether we\u2019re intervening in the market. But that was not exactly the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He explained that what appeared to be heavy central bank activity between the second and third quarters of 2025 was mainly due to \u201clumpy payments\u201d that had to be cleared during that period.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween the second and the third quarter, we had to do a number of lumpy payments. There were all these large arrears in payments to some of the IPPs. These were billions of US dollars,\u201d Dr Pandit explained.<\/p>\n

He added that the Bank of Ghana also had to meet obligations to some domestic debt exchange bondholders who opted to exit their investments when the cedi appreciated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome bondholders felt that, because the currency had appreciated, it was the right time to take up their investment. We had to allow them to go,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we did a lot of lumpy payments between July and August.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to him, those payments temporarily created the impression that the Bank was aggressively intervening in the market, but that was not the case.<\/p>\n

He explained that the central bank had to step in to stabilise the market during a period when remittance inflows \u2014 which usually inject over US$6 billion annually into the economy \u2014 declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately after the currency appreciated, we saw a decline in remittance inflows,\u201d he noted. \u201cSo, in the mix of that, the central bank needed to step in to meet all those lumpy payments. The interbank FX market had dried up during that time, and so the central bank needed to provide that support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Pandit said the situation has now improved significantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Interbank FX market has come back,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have written to the mining firms, for example, to take all their inflows through the commercial banks. So we are beginning to see some pickup in activity in the interbank FX market.\u201d<\/p>\n

He clarified that with increased inflows through the commercial banks, the central bank\u2019s role in the market will reduce while reserves are rebuilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo give you an example, as of yesterday, we had committed to make available $150 million. This morning, when I checked, the market had picked up only $90 million \u2014 so $60 million automatically goes into our reserves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSame thing Tuesday \u2014 we made available $150 million, the market picked up less than half that. So automatically it goes into our reserves,\u201d Dr Pandit explained.<\/p>\n

He stressed that the Bank of Ghana\u2019s interventions are carefully calibrated to smooth out volatility, not to deplete reserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not over-support the markets at all. All we seek to do is to limit the volatilities in the markets, to ensure that we have that smooth dynamics in the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Pandit concluded that the central bank remains committed to a stable and transparent foreign exchange framework that balances market needs with reserve accumulation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"We\u2019reGovernor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Asiama Pandit, has dismissed claims that the central bank is depleting the country\u2019s foreign reserves through market interventions.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1904,2304,10672,319,10674,1978,1951,1883,117,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banking-and-finance","category-bog-governor","category-dr-johnson-asiama-pandit","category-economy","category-foreign-reserves","category-hp-business-1","category-hp-news-1","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}