Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde says Ghana has everything it takes to do without an IMF program.
Answering questions in a “Town Hall” meeting in Accra, Madam Lagarde said that the measures that government is putting in place now should stabilize the economy.
“You know your country better than I do, it seems to me on the face of it, particularly if the resolve that I have heard from the president, from the vice president, from the finance minister, from the governor if there is that resolve to actually stay the course and maintain that fiscal discipline I think the country has everything it takes to do without an IMF program,” Christine Lagarde said.
She added, “I very much hope that there would not be these external shocks, whether it takes a sharp and durable drop in commodity prices or massive increases in tensions that could hamper any trade. I hope that doesn’t happen because if it did then clearly not just Ghana but quite a few countries would need our help and we stand ready.
We need to be ready and available for that. I think in addition to political maturity, I think that fiscal responsibility can be developed and it requires buying and it requires explaining but I think it in the seeds of the tree that you are nurturing.”
The gathering is to bring together, the Bank of Ghana governors, banking chiefs, civil society groups and the academia.
In 2015, The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Ghana in an amount equivalent to SDR 664.20 million (180 percent of quota or about US$918 million) in support of the authorities’ 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.
Some key issues of the credit facility included the freezing of public sector employment, reducing the budget deficit and zero financing of the budget deficit by the Bank of Ghana.
Meanwhile, in 2017, the Government of Ghana reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to extend the Credit Facility programme by a year.
However, Ghana is expected to end the IMF program technically by the end of this year
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