IMF deal will not restore our fortunes overnight – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the $3bn bailout expected from the International Monetary Fund will not turn around the economy overnight.

According to him, when fiscal discipline is practiced, trust and confidence in the economy will be restored.

Delivering the state of the nation address in parliament on March 8, 2023, he said, “Mr Speaker, concluding the arrangements with the Fund will not restore our fortunes overnight, but it will set us on the road to recovery. With fiscal discipline, we will regain the trust and confidence of our business partners and the investor community, which will give us space to continue our productive plans and policies.”

He added that the government is also engaging in other ways to complement the support from the Fund.

“However, in addition to our engagement with the Fund, we are also seeking and implementing some original and innovative ideas to try to solve our problems. For example, the Gold Purchase Programme by the Bank of Ghana and the Gold for Oil Policy are creative uses of our resources, which are already bearing fruit.

“These policies are aimed at achieving two results that are critical to the health of our economy. Firstly, they will help us preserve foreign exchange, especially the US dollar, and secondly, they will enable us to stabilise the price of oil products such as petrol and diesel on the domestic market. We have already seen some success on both fronts with the price of US dollars and petroleum products falling since we announced the policy and began to implement it,” he added.