kwesi bekoe amissah - arthur : inauguration of the board of directors of the central securities depository ghana limited address by dr kwesi bekoe amissah - arthur, governor of the bank of ghana, at the inauguration of the board of directors of the central securities depository ghana limited, accra, 9 september 2010. * * * mr. chairman, deputy governor, advisors, heads of department and members of staff of the bank of ghana members of the media ladies and gentlemen on behalf of the central bank, let me welcome you to the inauguration of the governing board of the central securities depository ghana limited. over the past few years, the bank of ghana has launched a number of initiatives to modernize the payments, clearing and settlement systems. among them are : ( i ) the real time gross settlement system, ( ii ) the cheque codeline clearing ( ccc ) with truncation, and ( iii ) the national switch and smartcard payment system, popularly known as e - zwich. these are key initiatives in the banka€™s drive to reduce the reliance on cash - based transactions and improve the efficiency of the payments system. along with reforms of the banking and payment systems, the bank of ghana also has been active in improving the safety and efficiency of investments. an important initiative in this regard was the establishment of the collateral registry which registers collaterals created by borrowers to secure credit facilities. then there is the central securities depository. the central securities depository was established in november 2004 as part of the quest to make ghana an attractive investment destination. for almost six years now the csd has been working without fanfare as a unit of the bank of ghana. we have decided to outdoor it today. we are in, effect, weaning the csd off the mainstream bank of ghana coverage. the csd has facilitated the electronic issue and redemption of government securities. interest and maturity processing have been enhanced and investors are assured of the proceeds on their investments in a cost effective and timely manner. the csd helps to reduce settlement risk thus ensuring that investors have the confidence on the market. however, we recognize that the csd is at an infant stage and will need to be complimented to be able to synchronize funds and securities settlements. this requires that the settlement systems ( the gis and the depository ) are linked for processing with minimal human intervention. in complying with the requirements of the central securities

we receive lots of anecdotes, and some of the data we analyse may only be a few weeks out of date. but the most comprehensive measure of output in the economy, the estimate for gross domestic product, is not available for almost three months after the end of the quarter to which it refers - and then for the next year or so that figure is subject to revision, often to very substantial revision. thus for example, the first estimate made by statistics new zealand for gdp in the march quarter of 1996 indicated that the economy was growing at an annualised rate of some 1. 5 per cent. a year later, statistics new zealand estimated that the annualised growth rate for the march quarter of 1996 was actually some 4. 2 per cent. the policy implications of those two numbers are radically different. cynics have suggested that god made economic forecasters to make weather forecasters look good. but at least weather forecasters can look out the window, and with reasonable accuracy know what the weather is at the present time. economic forecasters do not have that advantage. if monetary policy works well, it can help the economy adjust to the unforeseen shocks which will inevitably hit us from time to time, whether these be sudden changes in export prices, sudden changes in import prices, or whatever. this should have a tendency to smooth fluctuations in output to some extent. but it is quite unrealistic to expect that monetary policy can eliminate the business cycle completely, and we have never claimed that we can do so. no matter how prescient the reserve bank had been, the sudden collapse of the korean economy was always going to have a hugely negative impact on the new zealand forestry industry, and on parts of the new zealand tourist industry. we should not, and do not, feel embarrassed about being unable to fully offset events such as that. in years past, some economists, recognising the very great practical problems involved in forecasting over the period relevant to monetary policy, suggested that as a substitute for economic forecasting central banks should simply concentrate on keeping some measure of money supply growing at a rate consistent with the inflation target. alas, central banks around the world found that keeping money supply growing at a stable rate was not only very difficult to do in practice but it also provided rather poor control over inflation. as a result, virtually all central banks admit to having abandoned such a monetarist approach to monetary policy, and even those central banks which continue to