Incentives to investors should be “smarter, results oriented” - Dep. Trade Min Pg
3
By Eugene Davis
TUESDAY 31 January 2023 Issue No. 9
A NEW THINKING
Momentum builds for free movement underAfCFTA 35 LPGMCs submits application for gas station Fuel prices are expected to go up by Wednesday, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) has predicted. According to IES, fuel prices will go up between seven per cent and 13 per cent with respect to petrol, diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Petrol will therefore sell at about ¢15 per litre, whilst diesel will go for over ¢17 per litre. According to the IES, the rise in domestic fuel prices, is due to the sharp depreciation of the cedi during the last two weeks and the rising international fuel prices as observed on the global S&P Platts platform. The energy think tank noted that the increase in fuel prices would be occasioned in spite of government’s receipt of approximately 41,000 metric tonne of diesel under its “Gold for Oil” programme. “On the basis of the rising international fuel prices as observed on the global S&P platform, linked with the local currency’s value decline against the greenback, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) estimates a 7 per cent to 13 per cent jump in the prices of Gasoline [petrol], Gasoil [diesel], and LPG over
By Eugene Davies
The CEO of National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has announced that 35 Liquified Petroleum Gas Marketing Companies (LPGMCs) have submitted application to put up a gas station in their respective locality. “After cabinet gave us approval to allow some categories of LPGMCs to build their filling stations, we made that announcement to the industry, and so far about 35 of them have submitted application. Out of the thirty-five, twenty-nine did not have proper documentation, so we have sent it back to them to make their documentation up to date and submit. About six have proper documentation and we have sent it to our regional offices to physically inspect their site, and we will issue the license for them to operate,” he told the Public Accounts Commission (PAC) when a question on the construction of new filling stations 2
2
Trade experts, business executives, and advocates of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) from across the continent have expressed concerns about the slow progress on the ratification of the Protocol on the movement of people.
Member States. Forty-four countries have deposited their instrument of ratification, but only four have ratified the Protocol on the movement of people.
Intra-African trade, currently less than 15 percent of the continent’s total trade, is largely stifled by The Agreement has, thus far, stringent entry rules making it been signed by fifty-four of the fif- strenuous for citizens to move ty-five African Union (AU) from one country to another. 2
The Ghana cedi has depreciated by a substantial 19.1 per cent to the US dollar this January [2023]. According to the Summary of Economic and Financial Data from the Bank of Ghana, the cedi sold at ¢10.60 to one US dollar in January 2023 on the interbank
market, compared with ¢8.57 in December, 2022. The central bank, however, pegged the cedi depreciation to the American greenback in 2022 to 30 per cent. For the pound and the euro, the local currency lost 21.4 per cent
3
AfDB approves $50 m loan for ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development By Eugene Davies
maritime resources. According to him, the mandate of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central 3
Africa (MOWCA) is essential and efforts should be championed for its effective and efficient
In a document released at the end of a three-day Africa Prosperity Dialogue held in Ghana from 26 to 28 January on the theme “AfCFTA: From Ambition to Action - Delivering Prosperity Through Continental Trade,” African countries are called upon to “accelerate the ratification of the Protocol.” The Protocol - initially contained in the 1991 Abuja Treaty - aims to
facilitate and increase the movement of Africans within Africa, while enhancing their rights to entry, residence, and establishment in AU member states.
cused on issues relating to AfCFTA ratification, market access, dispute resolution, negotiations on Phase II of the Agreement, industrialization, private sector, innovation and technology, financing and resource mobiWith more people able to move lization, partnerships for impact, freely, countries will easily tap and free movement of persons. into a wider labor market to bridge skills gaps while trading The outcome document also conacross borders. tains a commitment to “Ratify the AU Protocol on the Free Movement of The Africa Prosperity Dialogue fo- people and select a champion to
By Lucrezia Reichlin
Inflation’s return from the dead has brought the era of easy monetary policy to an end. The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and others are planning to shrink their balance sheets, but this is a process that will most likely unfold very slowly. In the meantime, the heavy lifting will be done the old-fashioned way: hiking short-term interest rates to rein in aggregate demand. But policymakers should be careful not to get ahead of themselves. The latest monetary-tightening cycle has been highly synchronized. While the Fed, the ECB, and the Bank of England did not all 3
start raising rates at the same time, they have all implemented 200-basis-point hikes since September. And they have all used similarly tough language to affirm their commitment to reining in price growth. This uniformity is puzzling, given
important differences in the dynamics driving inflation across economies. Consider the impact of skyrocketing global energy prices. For net energy importers like Europe, this trend implies a negative terms-of-trade shock – import-price growth outpaces ex-