Finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has confirmed that Ghana has completed its first review of the IMF programme.
According to him, a lot of hard work has gone into it and it’s a really significant milestone for the country. He reckoned that Ghana might be in recent times, the fastest to get to the first review in five months.
Mr Ofori-Atta stated that as the country steadily makes progress towards the approval of the first review, there’s still some work to be done through November, and he’s confident government will rise up to that occasion.
“I’m happy to confirm that Ghana has completed its first review of the IMF programme. The first review had key deliverables including the six performance criteria, three indicative targets and the three structural benchmarks that were due at the end of June 2023…”
Ken Ofori-Atta
Speaking at a joint press conference between the finance ministry and delegation from the IMF today, October 6, 2023, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that he is pleased to announce that the progress government sought to achieve is very much on course.
He noted that the stability that the Ghanaian economy was very much in need of has equally been achieved.
Furthermore, he emphasized that the country has indeed “turned the corner” and the major economic indicators such as inflation and exchange rates continue to drop and stabilize and there’s confidence returning in the economy.
“While we await the Fund staff to present the full assessment of the targets, I think we are now in a strong position to look ahead into the future and give all stakeholders the confidence that is needed to support the country.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
BoG to maintain tight monetary stance
On his part, Governor for the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, expressed gratitude to the IMF team for the constructive engagement during the past two weeks on all issues bordering on fiscal policy, monetary policy and structural reforms.
He stated that it has been a very comprehensive and collaborative work between the government side and the IMF, which has made the two-week mission very successful and fruitful, leading to the staff level agreement today.
Dr Addison underscored that the IMF agrees that the decisive measures put in place by the government and the Bank of Ghana have started yielding results, signaling a faster than expected turnaround which needs to be sustained as government resets the economy.
“More specifically, non-food inflation has dropped significantly by 19 percentage points, food inflation has also come down by about 8 percentage points… From the beginning of the year to date, the Bank of Ghana has built reserves of about $650 million instead of the programmed drawdown of $98 million. This has been boosted by the innovative Gold for Reserves programme, and as a result, we have seen relative stability in the exchange rate, depreciating by only 2.5% between February and now.”
Dr Ernest Addison
Considering the gains made by government, Dr Addison insisted that it is important to sustain the strong performance and consolidate the gains the country is witnessing.
Looking ahead, he emphasized that the Bank of Ghana will continue to “maintain a tight monetary policy stance until it is confident that inflation is firmly anchored and aligned with the disinflation path agreed” in the programme.
“There will be challenges and difficulties as we work towards sustaining these gains, but we remain focused and committed to the reforms and prudent policies to ensure the full benefits of these programmes are achieved.”
Dr Ernest Addison
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