By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - The Bank of Ghana, as widely expected, held its prime interest rate at 18.5 percent on Tuesday, Governor Paul Acquah told a news conference after a quarterly meeting of the bank's Monetary Policy Committee. At its meeting in February, its first of President John Atta Mills' administration, the bank raised the rate by 150 basis points, taking it to a 5-year high. The West African gold and cocoa exporter is grappling with inflation that hit a five-year high of 20.5 percent in March, and a burgeoning budget deficit after prices of food and fuel imports rose last year, compounded by government overspending in the election campaign in late 2008. The deficit worries some holders of Ghana's debut Eurobond, though investors are taking increasing interest in the country in the runup to 2011, when it expects to begin producing oil. "There is in the outlook an uncertainty associated with the global financial crisis, particularly its effect on trade and capital flows that are necessary to support economic activity," Acquah said. "In the circumstances, the Monetary Policy Committee has decided to leave the prime rate unchanged at 18.5 percent." Declining trade, foreign aid and remittances from Ghanaians working abroad threaten to seriously harm the economy, Mills said last week. | 
