Everything we have published, organised to be used.

A bank's capital expressed as a percentage of its risk-weighted assets, measuring its capacity to absorb losses. Regulators set a minimum that banks must maintain.

In plain terms: How much of a cushion a bank has before losses threaten depositors.

Ghanaian bank capital positions were rebuilt following the 2022–23 domestic debt exchange, but remain unevenly distributed across the sector.

The return earned from holding a higher-yielding currency or asset funded by a lower-yielding one. The interest rate differential is the carry.

In plain terms: The extra interest you earn for holding a currency that pays more.

Cedi assets have historically offered substantial carry over dollar assets. As that differential narrows during an easing cycle, the compensation for holding cedi exposure falls.

A measure of inflation that excludes volatile food and energy prices, intended to reveal the underlying trend in prices rather than short-term swings driven by harvests or global fuel markets.

In plain terms: Inflation with the most jumpy prices removed, so you can see the real trend.

Ghanaian disinflation episodes in which headline falls but core does not have historically proved temporary, which is why the Bank of Ghana and FlowWealth both weight core more heavily.

A fall in the value of a currency relative to another, meaning more units of the domestic currency are required to buy a unit of the foreign currency.

In plain terms: When the cedi weakens and each dollar costs more.

Cedi depreciation redistributes rather than simply destroys value — it raises costs for importers and consumers of imported goods while widening margins for exporters and increasing the cedi value of remittances.

The price of one currency expressed in terms of another, determined by the balance of demand and supply for each.

In plain terms: How many cedis it takes to buy a dollar.

Because Ghana imports a substantial share of what it consumes, movements in the cedi transmit relatively quickly into domestic prices, particularly through fuel and transport costs.

The rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises over a period, reducing the purchasing power of money. Measured in Ghana by the Consumer Price Index, published monthly by the Ghana Statistical Service.

In plain terms: How fast prices are rising, and therefore how fast your money loses value.

Ghanaian inflation has been both high and volatile, which makes the distinction between nominal and real returns considerably more consequential than it is in low-inflation economies.

The headline percentage return on an investment, before adjusting for inflation or tax.

In plain terms: The number on the advertisement.

Comparing nominal returns across countries or across time periods with different inflation rates is not a meaningful comparison.

A loan on which the borrower has failed to make scheduled payments for a defined period, typically 90 days. The ratio of non-performing loans to total loans is a standard measure of a bank's asset quality.

In plain terms: A loan the bank is not being repaid on.

Non-performing loan ratios across Ghanaian banks remain elevated relative to pre-2022 levels, and provisioning against them varies materially between institutions, which complicates comparison of reported profitability.

The benchmark interest rate set by a central bank, which influences the rates at which commercial banks lend and borrow, and through them the wider economy.

In plain terms: The main interest rate the central bank controls.

The Bank of Ghana's Monetary Policy Committee sets the policy rate. Its transmission to commercial bank deposit rates in Ghana is historically slow and incomplete, particularly when rates are falling.

The quantity of goods and services a unit of currency can buy. Purchasing power falls as prices rise, which is the mechanism by which inflation erodes savings.

In plain terms: What your money can actually buy.

A saver whose balance grows more slowly than Ghanaian inflation has more cedis and less purchasing power at the end of the period than at the start.

An investment return after adjusting for inflation. Approximately the nominal return minus the inflation rate; precisely, ((1 + nominal) ÷ (1 + inflation)) − 1.

In plain terms: What your money actually gained in buying power, not just in cedis.

During Ghana's high-inflation years, several widely held savings products delivered strongly positive nominal returns and negative real returns at the same time.

The length of time until a debt instrument matures and the principal is repaid.

In plain terms: How long your money is committed for.

Ghanaian Treasury bills are issued in 91, 182 and 364-day tenors. Matching the tenor to when the money is actually needed matters more than selecting the highest available rate.

A short-term debt instrument issued by a government, in Ghana with tenors of 91, 182 or 364 days. Sold at a discount to face value; the investor's return is the difference between the purchase price and the face value repaid at maturity.

In plain terms: A short-term loan you make to the government, repaid in full on a known date.

Treasury bills are the most widely held investment instrument in Ghana and set the benchmark return against which savings accounts and other opportunities are implicitly compared.

The return an investor receives on a security, expressed as an annualised percentage of the amount invested. For a discount instrument such as a Treasury bill, the yield is implied by the gap between the purchase price and the face value.

In plain terms: What your money earns each year, expressed as a percentage.

Quoted Ghanaian Treasury bill yields are annualised, so a 91-day bill quoted at 15% pays roughly a quarter of that over its actual holding period.

A plot of the yields available on debt of the same credit quality across different maturities. Its shape summarises what the market expects to happen to interest rates.

In plain terms: A picture showing what you earn for lending money for different lengths of time.

A flat or inverted short end of the Ghanaian curve generally signals that the market expects rates to fall, since investors accept less yield now to avoid reinvesting later at lower levels.