Bank of Ghana’s Losses and Public Gains: Understanding the accounting cost of Ghana’s monetary stabilisation and the benefit to citizens

The Bank of Ghana’s 2025 annual financial results, released on 1 May 2025, show a significant accounting loss. This outcome has attracted considerable public commentary, and it is important that it be properly understood. An accounting loss on a central bank’s balance sheet is not, in itself, evidence of institutional failure. In Ghana’s case, it is the direct financial consequence of the monetary policy interventions that produced the most significant macroeconomic stabilisation the country has experienced in recent history. The Bank remains policy solvent. This article examines the four specific sources that drove the loss, sets them against the measurable benefits they delivered to households, businesses, and the broader economy, and draws on original econometric analysis to assess the extent to which macro stabilisation has transmitted to real-sector outcomes. The conclusion is straightforward: the accounting cost is real, but so is the policy benefit. Understanding one without the other produces an incomplete and misleading picture of Ghana’s central bank and its recent conduct.

Original source: MyJoyOnline Ghana