The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it hopes to reach an agreement with the Government of Ghana on policies and reforms that could lead to a new lending arrangement.
In its statement IMF today indicated that during the IMF staff visit to Ghana scheduled early December, it aims to reach an agreement on the policies and reforms of the West African country. “Our objective for this visit is to make further progress toward reaching agreement on policies and reforms that could be supported by an IMF lending arrangement,” said Stéphane Roudet, mission chief for Ghana in his statement ahead of the visit.
“We have had productive discussions with the Ghanaian authorities over the last few months and look forward to our engagement in Accra…“The IMF remains fully committed to help Ghana restore macroeconomic stability, bring relief to Ghanaians in this time of crisis, and lay the foundation for more inclusive growth,” Stéphane Roudet said.
IMF’s forecast shows that Ghana’s real GDP growth in 2022 is expected to be 3.6 percent. The IMF statement indicated that will visit Accra from December 1–13 to continue discussions with the authorities on the country’s post-COVID program for economic growth and associated policies and reforms that could be supported by a new IMF lending arrangement. “IMF staff will also further engage with other stakeholders during the visit,” it said.
Ghana’s Outstanding Purchases and Loans (SDR) was 1302.57 million by September 30, 2022, according to IMF. It is recalled that over the past several months the IMF has been engaging with the Ghanaian authorities on their post-COVID program for economic growth and reform and associated policies and reforms that could be supported by a new IMF lending arrangement.
The goal of the government’s economic program, which would be supported by IMF financing, is to restore macroeconomic stability and ensure debt sustainability. When an IMF member country requests financing, the Fund assesses whether the country’s policies are consistent with debt sustainability, support the credibility of government policies, restore confidence in the central bank’s ability to manage inflation and rebuild foreign exchange reserve buffers to make the economy more resilient to shocks.
Such assessment by the Fund will be made based on a Debt Sustainability Assessment (DSA) and will be conducted jointly by the IMF and World Bank to determine whether the government is able to meet all its current and future payment obligations. The previous arrangement with Ghana was a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) in 2015-2018, which was extended to April 2019.