By Morkporkpor Anku
Accra, April 15, GNA – An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and the Ghanaian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the fourth review of Ghana’s economic programme under the Extended Credit Facility arrangement.
This staff-level agreement is subject to Executive Board approval.
Upon completion of the Executive Board review, Ghana would have access to SDR 267.5 million (about US$370 million), bringing the total IMF financial support disbursed under the arrangement, since May 2023, to SDR 1,708 million (about US$2.355 billion.
The Team-Ied by Mr. Stéphane Roudet, Mission Chief for Ghana, held meetings in Accra from April 2 to April 15, 2025, to discuss progress on the authorities’ policy and reform priorities in the context of the fourth review of Ghana’s three-year programme under the Extended Credit Facility.
The arrangement was approved by the IMF Executive Board for a total amount of SDR 2.242 billion (about US$ 3 billion) on May 17, 2023.
Mr. Roudet said, “Growth in 2024 was higher than expected, underpinned by strong mining and construction activity.”
He said the external sector had seen a considerable improvement, driven by solid exports particularly gold and to a lesser extent oil—and higher remittances.
“As a result, international reserves accumulation has far exceeded the ECF-supported programme targets,” he said.
Mr Roudet said, “Notwithstanding these achievements, overall performance under the IMF-supported programme deteriorated markedly at end-2024.”
The Team-Lead said preliminary fiscal data pointed to slippages in the run-up to the 2024 general elections, on account of a large accumulation of payables.
Inflation exceeded programme targets. Several reforms and policy actions were delayed across the fiscal, financial, and energy sectors.
He said, “Against this backdrop, the new authorities have taken bold measures to address policy slippages and ensure the programme objectives remain within reach.”
On the fiscal front, the government has launched an audit of the payables to firm up the size and nature of the slippages. Based on preliminary estimates of new payables, the primary balance posted a deficit of some 3¼ percent of GDP (compared to a targeted surplus of ½ percent of GDP).
He said to address these slippages, the authorities had enacted a 2025 budget that targets a 1½ per cent of GDP primary surplus and adopted several public financial management reforms.
The latter includes an enhanced fiscal responsibility framework and new rules to tighten expenditure commitments.
“Discussions with the authorities centered on possible additional measures needed to address structural weaknesses in the public financial management and procurement systems as well as steps to ensure fiscal execution remains consistent with programme objectives,” he added.
He said engagement with the authorities also focused on measures aimed at strengthening key social protection programmes to cushion the most vulnerable from the impact of high inflation and ongoing policy adjustment.
“The Bank of Ghana has recently increased its policy rate and is reviewing its liquidity management operations. The ensuing tightening in the monetary policy stance, together with the ongoing fiscal consolidation, is expected to bring inflation down,” he added.
He said the mission also engaged the authorities on their wide-ranging structural reform programme, with a focus on enhancing governance and transparency and strengthening State-Owned Enterprises management in the gold, cocoa, and energy sector.
On the latter, the resumption of quarterly electricity tariff adjustments, combined with structural reforms, will help reduce the energy sector shortfall and stop the accumulation of new arrears.
Mr Roudet said financial stability was being maintained as recapitalization progresses and the authorities are committed to strengthening public banks.
Ghana remains committed to completing its comprehensive public debt restructuring to restore sustainability.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ghana’s Official Creditors Committee (OCC) under the G20 Common Framework has been signed by all parties, and the focus is now on finalizing the bilateral agreements to implement the MoU.
The authorities are also pursuing good-faith efforts in reaching an agreement with other commercial creditors on a debt treatment that is in line with program parameters and the comparability of treatment principles.”
IMF staff met with Dr Ato Forson, Finance Minister, Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, Governor of th4 Bank of Ghana and their teams, as well as representatives from various government agencies, and other stakeholders.
The IMF team express its gratitude to the Ghanaian authorities and other counterparts for their continued open and constructive engagement.
GNA
CA