No debt treatment deal with creditors, no US$600m tranche – IMF to Ghana

The International Monetary Fund has said “discussions between the Ghanaian authorities and the Official Creditor Committee are ongoing” toward releasing the second $600 million tranche of the three-year $3-billion Extended Credit Facility programme.

The release of the next tranche is, however, contingent on an agreement between the Ghanaian government and the official creditors, the Bretton Wood institution has said.

“We certainly hope that an agreement can be reached soon so that we can rapidly bring the programme to the Board”, Director of the IMF’s Communications Department, Julie Kozack, said at a recent press conference.

She pointed out that the Ghanaian authorities’ “strong policy and reform commitments under the three-year, $3-billion programme with the IMF is starting to bear fruit”.

“There are signs of economic stabilisation”, she observed, adding: “Growth in 2023 has proven more resilient than initially envisaged” while “inflation has come down, and the fiscal and external positions have improved”.

“Moreover, exchange rate volatility has declined”, Ms Kozack added.

She said on October 6, 2023, “our IMF team reached a staff-level agreement on the first review under the programme, and once this review was completed by the Board, Ghana would have access to $600 million in financing.

“To ensure timely completion of the review, official creditors and the Ghanaian authorities will need to reach agreement on a debt treatment, consistent with the objectives of the programme, and in line with the financing assurances that creditors provided in May of 2023”, she mentioned.