CAJAST105-384-1 |Received: 03 July 2017 | Accepted: 11 July 2017 | June-August-2017 [(5)2: 225-238]
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
© 2017 OPEN ARCHIVES INITIATIVE | Volume 5| Issue 2 | ISSN: 2356-6173
Exchange Rate Pass-Through (ERPT): The Inter-Connectivity
between Exchange Rate and Consumer Price Index in Ghana
Abdul-Aziz Ibn Musah
1
, Du Jianguo
1*
, James Small Azibah
ab
, Patrick Boateng Sarpong
1
ab
P.O. Box ST 383 Stadium Kumasi Ghana
1
School of Management, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, P.R. China
*
Corresponding author: Prof Du Jianguo (jgdu2005@163.com)
ABSTRACT
The effect of exchange rates movements and its associated volatility has remained a crucial issue in a small
open economy such as Ghana. The subject plays a key role in international financial and macroeconomic
management and policy formulation. This need induced a considerable measure for looking into on the pass-
through effects of exchange rates. This study employs co-integration and error correction model to explore the
pass-through effects of exchange rate changes to consumer price index for Ghana, being extended from
January 2000 to March 2016. The investigation looks to give answers to various inquiries like the degree of
exchange rate pass- through (ERPT) to consumer price, issues of asymmetry effects, the validity of purchasing
power parity and exchange rates models. The empirical evidence indicates that, fluctuations in the exchange
rate either affect inflation through direct changes in import prices or through aggregate demand, which is
issued as part of changes in the relative price between foreign and domestic commodities. However, the low
ERPT to consumer prices suggests that inflation is most likely affected by other factors than the exchange rate.
The model included variables like, inflation, consumer price interest rate which responded significantly to
shocks in external price. An increase (positive shock) in the foreign price variable results in domestic prices is
being increased significantly an indication that Ghana is exposed to global price shocks (imported inflation).
Using variance decomposition test in this study, demonstrates the importance of shocks within the imports and
the consumer price themselves verse shocks from the exchange rate and other variables in the economy. The
findings suggest that sound monetary policies and economic management environment should focus on
achieving stable exchange rate inflation since monetary policies has no positive effect on commodities.
Keywords: Rate Pass-Through, Consumer Price Level, Interest Rate, Co-Integration, Exchange
INTRODUCTION
An expansive research has shown that the extent of
exchange rate pass-through effect has important
implications for the timing of current account
adjustments (Adu, Karimu, & Mensah, 2015;
Krugman & Obstfeld, 2003), the conduct of fiscal
policy (Aron, Farrell, Muellbauer, & Sinclair, 2014;
Aron, Macdonald, & Muellbauer, 2014; Corsetti,
Dedola, & Leduc, 2010; Dufrénot, 2011; Warsh,
2013), the choice of exchange rate regime, and the
international transmission of shocks (Căpraru &
Ihnatov, 2012; Klein & Shambaugh, 2012).
The pass-through effect of exchange rate movements
to domestic monetary value occupies a very
dominant position in international finance and
remains on the much-debated questions among both
professionals and academia. Traditional open-
economy macroeconomic models paid little care to
pass-through, because in such exemplar markets are
characterized by perfect competition, prices are
assumed to be fully flexible, and purchasing power
parity is assumed to be valid at all times, which
suggested a complete and immediate ERPT.
According to (Gust, Leduc, & Vigfusson, 2010;
Helen, 2012; Kochen & Sámano, 2016; Saunders &
Cornett, 2014), the pass-through effect operates
broadly through prices of imported goods in the
consumer price index and price setting and
expectations. Although mainstream open-economy