The International Monetary Fund (IMF) board is scheduled to convene in early December to approve a US$360 million disbursement to Ghana, following the country’s successful completion of the third review under the IMF support programme.
This milestone reflects Ghana’s progress in meeting the programme’s requirements, paving the way for continued financial support to bolster economic recovery and growth.
“Once the review is completed by the IMF’s executive board, Ghana would have access to about $360 million in terms of disbursement,” the Director of Communications at the IMF Julie Kozack disclosed at a news conference in Washington, DC, USA.
“We are working; our staff are working toward a board meeting in early December and will provide additional details on the precise date when we have them,” she added.
Describing the programme performance as encouraging, Ms. Kozack said Ghana had followed the requirements for the country’s debt restructuring.
“What I can say in addition is that the programme performance has been good. There has been in particular remarkable progress on debt restructuring.”
She pointed out that some macroeconomic projections have been achieved under the programme, indicating some level of recovery.
“Economic growth in the first half of 2024 exceeded our expectations and exceeded our projections. Inflation has declined, and the fiscal and external positions have shown marked improvement,” she said.
She cautioned against decisions that may cause slippages in the future.
“Looking ahead, what will be important for Ghana will be continued implementation of the policy and reform agendas, especially given the difficult situation that many countries in the region and globally face. And it remains essential to fully restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability.”
“We will, of course, have further updates on Ghana when we release the staff report, when we publish the staff report after the board meeting,” she added.
On October 4th, the IMF staff and the Ghanaian government reached a staff-level agreement on key economic policies and reforms required for the third review of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement.
This agreement marks an important step toward advancing Ghana’s economic reform agenda under the IMF programme.