IMF mission to visit Ghana from September 25

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team will be in Ghana from September 25 through the first week of October to assess the implementation of Ghana’s Economic Recovery Programme.

This will be the second visit by the IMF after its board approved Ghana’s bailout on May 17 and review the targets under the $3 billion three-year extended credit facility.

The government remains hopeful of receiving the second tranche of the IMF bailout cash in December to support the government’s balance of payments.

This was disclosed by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta at the 3rd 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.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ofori-Atta also said that Ghana is on track to receive the second tranche of the IMF bailout cash in December to support the government’s balance of payments (BOP) for 2023 and 2024.

The Bank of Ghana’s June 2023 summary of the Economic and Financial Stability Report showed that the bank’s BOP at the end of June 2023 recorded a deficit of $107.8 million, approximately 0.1% of GDP.

The bank said this was significantly lower than the deficit recorded during the same period in 2022.