Consumer confidence, business sentiments show mixed signals in December 2021

BoG conducts latest confidence surveys in December 2021

Business sentiments driven by achievement of short-term company targets

Consumer confidence soften due to price hikes in ex-pump fuel

Ghana’s central bank has indicated that business sentiments showed an improvement while consumer confidence softened in December 2021.

This is according to the Bank’s latest confidence surveys conducted in December last year.

The Bank of Ghana Governor, Dr Ernest Addison, in a statement issued on January 31, 2022 explained, “While consumer confidence softened because of recent increases in ex-pump petroleum prices and the announcement of new tax measures in the 2022 budget, business sentiments on the other hand improved.”

The central bank governor added that improved business sentiments were driven by the achievement of short-term company targets and optimism about companies’ growth prospects.

“In addition, the Ghana Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which gauges the rate of inventory accumulation by managers of private sector firms and which measures dynamics in economic activity, increased for four consecutive months in the second half of 2021- a development which is consistent with the observation of a steady increase in economic activity,” the statement revealed.

The Bank of Ghana however indicated that the findings from the survey are consistent with its monitoring of steady rise in economic activity.

Additionally, the Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) of the central bank witnessed an annual growth of 10.2 percent in November 2021. This is compared to an earlier 11.9 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.

“The key drivers of economic activity during the period were increased industrial production, consumption, exports, construction activities, and air-passenger arrivals,” the central bank pointed out.