The Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) is urging the Bank of Ghana to maintain or cut the monetary policy rate to help ease borrowing costs and support business activity.

The call comes ahead of today’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting, where the central bank is expected to announce its next policy decision.

Currently, the policy rate stands at 18 percent.

GUTA President Clement Boateng says a hold or reduction in the policy rate would provide relief to traders and improve access to credit, as businesses continue to grapple with high financing costs.

“I don’t expect any increments in the monetary policy rates. If anything at all, it should be maintained. But what we have been saying is that whenever there is any monetary policy decrease, we don’t see a corresponding decrease in the lending rates. That is what we have always, you know, been calling for. I think just about the last monetary policy rate that was announced, we just saw a marginal decrease of the reference rate.”

“I think the reference rate was around 16.9 and it was reduced to 16.6 thereabouts, which was minimal and doesn’t have any positive impact as far as the lending rates is concerned. So what we are expecting is for the Monetary Policy Committee to either maintain the current policy rate or reduce it for us to see a corresponding decrease in the lending rate so that businesses can borrow and then expand their businesses to create more employment,” he said in an interview with Citi Business News.