2024-01-20 11:14:13
Published on January 20, 2024
Lecture : 2 minutes.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced, at the end of the day Friday January 19, the immediate payment of 600 million dollars to the Ghanaian government, as part of its aid program, following the announcement of a restructuring agreement of external debt of pays.
This new disbursement, validated by the fund’s board of directors, brings to $1.2 billion the aid already paid to the West African country, out of the three billion dollars in 36 months. provided for by the program.
Programme of reform
“Today’s agreement is an important step,” emphasized Ghanaian Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta during a press conference, “it is the unmistakable demonstration that the program is progressing steadily and that our trajectory of reforms is stable. The head of the mission of IMF in the country, Stéphane Roudet, judged for his part that “the government is putting in place a reform program necessary to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability”.
The announcement comes as Ghana finalized the last week an agreement with its main external creditors for a restructuring of its debt, a necessary step to allow the payment of the aid provided for by the IMF program. A step considered “positive and important towards establishing the viability of the Ghana’s long-term debt,” the country’s Ministry of Finance responded.
Growth expected at 4.4% in 2025
“We thank France and China for their role” in debt restructuring, declared Ken Ofori-Atta on 19 January. The Ghanaian government hopes that the IMF board’s approval will prompt the World Bank board to consider $300 million in financing for the country.
The IMF also finalized its Article 4 – its annual review of the economy nationality of a country – for Ghana. After a slowdown in Ghanaian growth, which should stand at 2.3% in 2023, the fund estimates that it should start to rise once more and anticipates 2.8% in 2024 then 4.4% in 2025. The recovery of economy, IMF aid and debt restructuring should enable Ghana to reduce its debt ratio from 93.3% of GDP in 2022 to 86.1% this year, and 72% by 2028.
Large producer of cocoa and gold, the Ghana also has gas and oil reserves, but its debt burden has exploded in recent years, as in other sub-Saharan African countries, under the influence in particular of the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict Ukrainian.
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