The nation?s foreign exchange reserve now stands at 1.4billion dollars, the highest recorded in over three decades, Yaw Osafo Maafo, minister of finance and economic planning has stated. He attributed the improvement to the reduced debt servicing obligations of the government as a result of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries or HIPC initiative. He noted that the reserve could serve the nation within the next four months, adding that the country?s foreign debt servicing which was 392million dollars between 1998 and 2000 has now been reduced to 150milion dollars.

?The difference comes to the government to be used for economic purposes,? he said. Mr. Osafo Maafo said the inflation rate is 11.6per cent and it is expected to come down by the end of the year. Also, the cross domestic product which now stands at 5.2 cent will move up. He said that because of the sound monetary polices the government was pursuing, the nation had been rated ?B plus? by her creditor nations. The government, he said will continue to explore more avenues for the economy to improve even more.