IMF bailout ends December 2018 – Finance Minister

The government’s bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to come to an end in December 2018.

This is the position of the presidency disclosed by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta during a meeting with Financial Journalists at the Ministry on Monday.

According to him, the government is committed to achieving all the benchmarks set for it to ensure that it falls short of any conditionality.

Ofori-Atta is confident that government will meet the outstanding requirements and by December 2018 end the programme with the IMF.

“With regards to IMF and December 2018, that a commitment by the presidency. I Know we have about two prior action or so and about 5 structural benchmarks that we need to be able to make to be able to do the April 9 board meeting and we are committed to doing that and we will do that and then the rest of the year will be ahead of us” he remarked.

On how government intends to meet that mark, Finance Minister reiterated government’s resolve at implementing some policies that will go a long way to ensure the targets are met.

Ofori-Atta singled out the revenue mobilisation as a priority to government and hinted at a deliberate effort and a close partnership between the Ministry and the GRA to ensure that the plans come into fruition.

“I think one of the two key issues really is the ministry working together with GRA and the Ghanaian people to really boost up our revenue. That’s key. I think all of the reforms you may have suggested or thought of, I don’t think they are things that we don’t want to do anywhere” he asserted.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April 2015 approved a three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Ghana in an amount equivalent to US$918 million in support of Ghana’s medium-term economic reform program.

The program aims to restore debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability to foster a return to high growth and job creation, while protecting social spending.

The Executive Board’s decision will enable an immediate disbursement of SDR 83.025 million (about US$114.8 million).

This was reveled in a media encounter between the Finance Ministry and some financial journalists on Monday 26th February 2018 at the Ministry’s conference room to receive updates on developments about the economy.

The ministry was confident that with the recent upturn in economy due to the prudent management, Ghana will not extend the bailout.

It was emphasized that successes in 2017 outperformed deficit target of 6.3%, reduced total debt to GDP ratio to under 70%, exceeded the annual Real GDP growth target of 6.3%, reduced end-year inflation from 15.4% in 2016 to 11.8% in 2017 and reduced energy sector legacy debt issues via the ESLA Bond. This, according to the minister, was indication that the country was performing well in the macro environment and there are signs of improvements in the micro.

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