Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has ruled out another romance with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), maintaining that sufficient macroeconomic gains have been made to prevent a return to the UN-backed institution.
“The expectation of all of this is that we are consistently on top of the macroeconomics of the country, and making sure that we work within the budget Parliament will have approved.
“In addition to that, we have set up the Economic Planning and Coordinating Council so we don’t have any slippages in the macro and fiscal policies. We feel good about where we are,” he told B&FT in an interview on Thursday in Accra.
According to him, Article 4 of the framework provides that they continue to engage with the IMF, but nonetheless the country is looking forward to working on “disciplining ourselves”.
Presenting a statement to Parliament on completion of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme with the IMF, the US$3 billion Eurobond issuance, the developments on the foreign exchange market and the cedi, as well as the visit of the World Bank Vice-President for Africa, he expressed optimism of the economy’s revival.
He indicated that the gains made have resulted in a rising and broad-based GDP growth momentum, with the economy growing by 6.1% (end Q3 2018 average); 8.1% in 2017; and 3.4% in 2016.
On what occasioned the IMF programme, he explained that in 2012 before the general elections, Ghana recorded a deficit of 11.5% of GDP – the highest deficit on record in the fourth republic – with the IMF calling for urgent measures to restore macroeconomic stability.
Ghana signed up to a three-year ECF programme in April 2015, which entailed a total of eight programme reviews twice a year, with a total expected inflow for the three-year period to be US$914m.
By April 2nd 2019, an official announcement is expected to signal an end to the three-year ECF programme with the IMF, noted the minister
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