The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, has accused the Bank of Ghana (BOG) of illegally printing money for Government.

Mr Adongo stated that the central bank is printing new notes to enable the government to cover its expenditure since it is unable to receive funding from international institutions but has to pay high interest rates on loans it acquired.

Speaking to the press on Monday, July 2022, Mr Adongo said "a man who cannot borrow in Ghana, a man who cannot borrow from abroad, his revenue are not performing, is able to get money to spend a lot of money. Only one thing is happening, the Bank of Ghana is printing money and throwing money at the government.”

The Bolgatanga Central MP noted that the unapproved printing of notes is a breach of regulations of the Central Bank and other financial sector regulations.

However, the Central Bank has the mandate to issue and redeem the currency notes and coins in order to keep interest rates low in the hope of driving economic growth.

But the Bolgatanga Central MP is of the view that the supply of more currency in the economy will exacerbate the country's inflation rate since more money would be chasing the limited number of goods.

Mr Adongo further maintained that as more money is circulating within the economy, economic growth is more likely to occur, however, at the risk of price destabilization.

He concluded that the NDC MPs will take every legal action to stop the illegal printing of money.

“That is illegal, that is preposterous and we will do everything to get to the bottom of that matter.”

Taking his turn, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, also mounted the same allegation against the Bank of Ghana.

He claimed that on page 97 of Appendix 2a of the Mid-year budget revealed that BoG printed an amount of GH¢22 billion between January and June 2022 without Parliamentary approval.

Speaking to the media on the sideline after the presentation of the mid-year budget, Mr Ato Forson claimed BoG “ have printed GH¢22 billion fresh money without the knowledge of Parliament and without informing all of us.”

“I am saddened, no wonder inflation is galloping, no wonder that our reserves position is dwindling. Because when you create new money out of the thin air, what happens is that inflation will go up and obviously because it is new money, you will end up losing your reserves because there would be new consumption."

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), has revealed that as of June 2022, the country's inflation rate stood at 29.8%.

This is said to be the highest rate recorded since January 2004.

Source: The Independent Ghana