The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has posted a significantly wider net loss of GH¢15.6 billion for 2025, deepening from a loss of GH¢9.4 billion recorded in 2024, as the cost of aggressive monetary tightening, reserve accumulation, and currency stabilisation weighed heavily on its financial position.
The latest figures, contained in the central bank’s audited financial statements, highlight the growing financial burden of restoring macroeconomic stability, even as key economic indicators—particularly inflation and external reserves—show marked improvement.
The reported net loss was further compounded by a GH¢19.32 billion charge recorded under other comprehensive income.
This adjustment reflects the accounting impact of a stronger Ghanaian cedi, which reduced the domestic currency value of the central bank’s foreign-denominated assets, including reserves held in dollars and gold.
Taken together, these losses have translated into a deterioration of the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet, with the institution posting negative equity of GH¢35 billion in 2025.
This pushes total accumulated negative equity to GH¢96.3 billion, up from GH¢61.3 billion at the end of 2024—a sharp reversal from the positive equity position of GH¢1.2 billion recorded just a year earlier.
The central bank has attributed these developments to what it describes as “the cost of the work that was done,” pointing to deliberate policy actions aimed at stabilising the economy after a period of high inflation and currency volatility.
A major driver of the widening loss is the cost of fighting inflation. In 2025, the Bank of Ghana intensified its liquidity sterilisation operations, issuing short-term instruments to absorb excess cash from the banking system and paying interest on them.
This effort saw the cost of such operations nearly double from GH¢8.6 billion in 2024 to GH¢16.7 billion in 2025.
The financial implication of this strategy is clear: while it significantly erodes the central bank’s profitability, it delivers measurable macroeconomic gains.
Inflation, which had proven stubborn in 2024, declined by 18 percentage points in 2025, suggesting that the higher expenditure on monetary tightening achieved its intended objective.
For the broader economy, this translates into improved price stability, stronger purchasing power, and a more predictable business environment.
Another contributor to the loss position is the cost associated with building external reserves through gold accumulation.
The central bank recorded an accounting cost of GH¢9 billion in 2025 under its gold programme, up from GH¢5.7 billion in 2024. This initiative has dramatically increased Ghana’s gold holdings to approximately 111 tonnes in 2025, compared to less than one tonne in 2021.
While this weighs on the bank’s income statement, the economic implication is largely positive.
The accumulation of gold strengthens the country’s reserve buffer, enhances confidence in the currency, and reduces reliance on external borrowing.
In effect, the central bank is converting short-term financial losses into long-term financial resilience.
The third major factor shaping the loss is the accounting effect of exchange rate movements.
The strengthening of the cedi in 2025 resulted in a decline in the cedi value of foreign reserves, leading to the GH¢19.32 billion charge recorded in other comprehensive income.
This is essentially the reverse of the gains the bank would record when the currency weakens.
Importantly, the underlying assets did not diminish.
On the contrary, gross international reserves increased significantly from US$9.1 billion to US$13.8 billion.
The implication is that the reported loss reflects valuation effects rather than an actual depletion of resources.
In macroeconomic terms, a stronger currency is beneficial, as it helps contain inflation and lowers the cost of imports, even if it creates accounting losses for the central bank.
The growing losses and negative equity position raise important questions about the financial health of the central bank and its implications for the wider economy.
While central banks are not profit-driven institutions and can operate with negative equity, sustained losses can have consequences for credibility, policy effectiveness, and fiscal coordination.
For the Bank of Ghana, the immediate implication is reduced financial flexibility.
Persistent losses may limit its ability to absorb future shocks without external support and could eventually necessitate recapitalisation by the government.
Such a move would have fiscal implications, potentially adding to public debt or requiring budgetary reallocations.
For the broader economy, however, the picture is more balanced. The losses reflect the cost of achieving macroeconomic stability—lower inflation, a stronger currency, and improved reserve buffers.
These outcomes are critical for economic recovery, investment attraction, and long-term growth.
The situation also underscores a key policy trade-off.
A weaker cedi would have improved the central bank’s balance sheet through valuation gains but at the expense of higher inflation and reduced purchasing power for households. Conversely, the stronger cedi has resulted in accounting losses but delivered tangible economic benefits.
Ultimately, the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 financial performance illustrates the price of stabilisation in a post-crisis environment. The institution has effectively prioritised macroeconomic stability over short-term financial results, accepting significant losses in the process.
The challenge going forward will be to sustain these gains while gradually restoring the central bank’s financial position.
This will likely require a combination of continued policy discipline, improved fiscal-monetary coordination, and, potentially, structured recapitalisation to rebuild its capital base.
For now, the numbers tell a clear story: the central bank is absorbing heavy financial costs, but the broader economy is beginning to reap the benefits.
