From September 25 through the first week of October, a staff team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be in Ghana to evaluate how the country’s Economic Recovery Programme is being carried out.
Following the board’s approval of Ghana’s bailout on May 17, this will be the IMF’s second trip to assess the goals for the $3 billion three-year extended loan facility.
The second installment of the IMF bailout money is still expected to be sent to the government in December, helping to strengthen its balance of payments.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta made this announcement during the third GIPC CEO’s Breakfast Meeting in Accra.
“The fund will be here on September 25th through the beginning of October. Hopefully, we will get the staff level agreement then, and then we will go to the board in November of this year.”
“I believe that by going through the mission in September, we should be able to reach a successful staff-level agreement, and that will help us in our negotiating position,” he said.
The second installment of the IMF bailout money, which would support the government’s balance of payments (BOP) for 2023 and 2024, is expected to arrive in Ghana in December, according to Mr. Ofori-Atta.
According to the Bank of Ghana’s summary of the Economic and Financial Stability Report from June 2023, the bank’s BOP had a shortfall of $107.8 million, or around 0.1% of GDP, as of the end of June 2023.
This, according to the bank, was considerably less than the deficit registered during the same time in 2022.
