IMF Sets Conditions For Completion Of Ghana's Program

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the April 2019 completion date for Ghana’s program would largely depend on meeting come critical targets during the mission review visit in September.

Speaking to Joy Business the IMF country representative, Natalia Koliadina, said the seventh review would be very crucial "because it will indicate how far or how close Ghana is from the completion of the program and how achievable the targets are”.

“Everything depends on how quickly we can get in December data. I don’t expect that the Board will meet anytime later than April,” she said.

Some economists have argued that if Ghana fails to pass all the benchmark outlined, in the seventh review, there is the likelihood that the proposed April 2019 deadline could be missed.

The main pillars of the program include a sizeable and frontloaded fiscal adjustment to restore debt sustainability, focusing on containing expenditures through wage restraint and limited net hiring, as well as on measures to mobilize additional revenues.

There is also the structural reforms to strengthen public finances and fiscal discipline by improving budget transparency, cleaning-up and controlling the payroll, right-sizing the civil service, and improving revenue collection.

IMF Boss, Christine Lagarde
Other pillars of the program include restoring the effectiveness of the inflation targeting framework to help bring inflation back into single-digit territory and preserving financial sector stability.

Government in May 2018 announced that it will request that an International Monetary Fund programme be extended until December 2018, from its current end date of April 2018, to boost efforts to stabilize the economy.

The extension would reassure markets and also likely bring in additional IMF funds to a programme under which Ghana was initially set to receive $918 million over three years.

IMF says the April 2019 completion date for Ghana’s program would largely depend on meeting come critical targets during the mission review visit in September.

The IMF mission is expected is in town this month to review how Ghana’s program is performing.

In 2015, Ghana entered into a three-year agreement for 918 million dollars to, help restore others, restore macroeconomic stability and policy credibility.

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