The Government of Ghana and the International Monetary Fund are eager to leverage the positive response of the economy through the Staff-Level Agreement to get a board approval from the IMF Executive Board.
In a joint statement signed by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and leader of the IMF Mission team, Stéphane Roudet, they expressed optimism that the 2023 Budget adjustment strikes the right balance between determination and pragmatism.
“Already, the economy is responding positively to the news of Government of Ghana and the IMF reaching an SLA [Staff-Level Agreement] and we are eager to leverage this momentum to the very moment when the IMF Executive Board approves the Programme request. We are already seeing significant improvements in the exchange rate with the Ghana cedi recovering against major currencies”.
They hope that Ghanaians will continue to support all efforts to restore macroeconomic stability and promote robust and inclusive growth.
“We are confident as a resilient people, and we shall rally to support this great enterprise, to restore macroeconomic stability and promote robust and inclusive growth. The world is looking at us, and I know we can do it”.
The government and the IMF teams have in the last five months worked tirelessly to agree on key aspects of the IMF Programme at the Staff Level.
Key deliverables over the period included preparation of the Post-Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG); a medium-term macroeconomic framework; a Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) and Debt Management Strategy; a structural reforms to address structural bottlenecks, improve competitiveness and promote efficiency and effectiveness and a Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP).
The statement explained that Ghana stands ready to complete all Prior Actions before the end-March 2023 but more importantly, Ghana is committed to the IMF Programme as a whole.