millison narh : macroeconomic management and regional integration keynote address by mr millison narh, deputy governor of the bank of ghana, at the west african institute for financial and economic management ( waifem ) regional course on macroeconomic management and regional integration, accra, 8 – 19 march 2010. * * * director general of waifem, prof. akpan h. ekpo, course facilitators and participants, distinguished invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the governor, mr. kwesi amissah - arthur, let me welcome you all to this opening ceremony of the regional course on macroeconomic management and regional integration. i am pleased to welcome you all to accra, especially those visiting us for the first time ; please feel at home and do take some time off your otherwise busy work schedule to visit some of our historical landmarks as well as tourist attractions, and to get a taste of the well - known ghanaian hospitality. i also wish to thank waifem for organizing this course, and indeed for generally sustaining such efforts in line with its principal objective of building capacity for debt, macroeconomic and financial sector management in its constituent countries. i thank you for inviting me to deliver the keynote address and to chair the opening ceremony. from a cursory glance at your work program, it is clear to me that the course is rather integrated, as it covers topics ranging from research methods to the basics of macroeconomics, advanced macroeconomics, econometrics and regional integration issues. i am certain that an excellent faculty has been put at your disposal to facilitate the respective topics, and i am sure that your participation in the course shall indeed be beneficial. ladies and gentlemen, the theme for this course, “ macroeconomic management and economic integration ”, could not have been better chosen. the recent global financial crisis has re - emphasised the need for more efficient macroeconomic management and the promotion of economic integration among our economies. as you will recall, the impacts of the recent global financial crisis on fragile economies such as ours, have ranged from falling exports, a drop in remittances, reduced access to trade finance, lower levels of foreign direct investment, and potential reductions in further foreign aid flows. among the coping strategies that have been suggested at different fora is to boost domestic resources as foreign financing from export revenues to development assistance continues to dry up. another recommendation is to accelerate economic integration among our economies so as to limit the

sustained. achieving macroeconomic stability takes deliberate policies, sacrifices and resources which if not sustained, can easily unravel. i believe page | 2 this is one of the reasons why we have gathered here to get a sense of the policy direction needed to sustain the stable macro environment, going forward. 5. your excellency, i can report that under your leadership, the policies that we put into place in 2017 are yielding the right results. the economic indicators are good in terms of inflation, external account balances, reserves, gdp growth and business confidence. we have not only made significant gains in stability through prudent monetary and fiscal policies but also in regulatory and structural reforms, especially in the banking sector. this is key to unlocking the financial sector ’ s capacity to intermediate efficiently with increased access to credit in support of the country ’ s growth agenda. indeed, the thrust of current debate is not only about sustainability but also about scaling up broad - based growth for poverty reduction and increased employment. what can be done to consolidate the gains we have made and transition to high and durable growth without putting stability at risk? 6. i will not try to answer these questions but briefly note that sustaining macroeconomic stability, increasing access to credit, providing good infrastructure, having strong regulatory frameworks, and most importantly developing a skilled workforce are all necessary conditions that create the conducive environment for job creation and inclusive growth. your excellency, for us at the bank of ghana the outlook from the monetary policy perspective is to try to understand the nature of the trade - offs between monetary stabilisation, that is, stabilizing inflation at low page | 3 levels – perhaps reviewing our medium - term target to a lower level, and economic growth. 7. monetary policy will remain vigilant to deal with inflation pressures should they emerge. further, the bank of ghana has taken steps to build reserve buffers, to address potential risks from the external or domestic sectors. currently, the country ’ s gross international reserves is estimated at around us $ 8 billion and expected to increase with additional inflows from the cocoa syndicated loan. we are also deepening the foreign exchange market through the introduction of new products to improve liquidity and ensure stability in the local currency. 8. mr. president, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, beyond these broad policy objectives, i believe some of the pertinent issues that should help entrench macroeconomic stability and allay fears of the investment community and private