IMF Assures Ghana It Will Continue To Provide Budget Support Despite No Deal From Eurobond Holders

• The IMF says despite Ghana not reaching a debt restructuring agreement with its external creditors, it will continue to provide budgetary support to the country
• It expressed confidence in Ghana's ability to get its external creditors to reach an agreement as soon as possible
• The organisation stressed that the terms of such an agreement should be within the IMF parameters and allow Ghana to reduce its debt levels

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it will continue providing budgetary support to Ghana despite the country's failure to reach an agreement with its Eurobond holders.

The government has engaged its Eurobond creditors to reach a debt restructuring agreement after the country defaulted on its debts. Negotiations are, however, yet to be concluded.

In the meantime, the IMF says that the debt agreement needs to be reached as soon as possible to allow the country the fiscal space to breathe.

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At a press meeting at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, the African Director of the IMF, Abebe Selassie, expressed optimism about Ghana’s ability to reach a debt agreement with its external creditors.

He said Ghana has been able to secure financing assurance from her bilateral creditors, which would be enough for the IMF to continue providing funds for Ghana.

“And so, we do not envisage that it will affect our ability to conclude the next review and provide the pending disbursement.

“As we noted, we have reached a staff-level agreement, which is by far the most important component for the review”.

Abebe Selassie also noted that Ghana has shared with the IMF some of the terms under consideration with its commercial creditors.

However, some of these terms did not fall within the framework of the IMF bailout programme, hence the government’s rejection.

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The government, however, continues to engage its external creditors to find a deal that is within the IMF parameters to help lower Ghana’s debt burden to the right level and prevent further austere measures from being imposed on Ghanaians.

Akufo-Addo praises IMF for positive economic turnaround

YEN.com.gh reported that President Akufo-Addo said Ghana’s decision to seek support from the IMF is yielding positive results.

Akufo-Addo attributed the decline in inflation and relative forex stability to the IMF support programme.

Speaking during a meeting with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the Jubilee House, President Akufo-Addo said the programme was satisfactory.

The president believes the support programme has also contributed to an economic turnaround.

Moving forward, President Akufo-Addo said there was a need to strike a balance between the needs of Ghanaians while adhering to the IMF requirements.

Ahead of the 2024 election, he also said maintaining this balance was especially important.

Source: YEN.com.gh