Government has concluded most of the outstanding issues concerning ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This is according to the Head of the IMF Negotiation Team, Dr. Kwesi Botchway who says the programme should take off not later than April this year when the IMF Executive Board meets.
[contextly_sidebar id=”xkpk63BvcVKu6Rqp4fwUAPrVNkCMJXoM”]Earlier the International Monetary Fund described as good progress efforts in reaching an agreement with Ghana.
The fund’s Director of Communications Gerry Rice in Washington D.C. on February 5 said “I can furthermore say that we believe good progress has been achieved in recent weeks on the plan to clean up the payroll, finalize the remaining details of the government’s medium-term reforms, as well as firm up financing assurances for the possible program.”
Ghana’s economic challenges was enormous in 2014.
The cedi depreciated by more than 30 percent in that year alone against the dollar, coupled with a high budget deficit, leading to government revising its budget deficit target that year.
There was and continuous to be erratic supply of power to industries and households coupled with hikes in inflation, utility tariffs and prices of petroleum products among others.
These challenges among others pushed the country to the IMF in September 2014 for a bailout program.
Last year President John Dramani Mahama said the country’s decision to open discussions with the International Monetary Fund was not because of the failure of government’s own home grown solutions, but rather because of the need for policy credibility and confidence from the international financial institutions, capital markets and investors for the measures being implemented to restore economic stability and growth.
Yesterday, February 11, 2015, his Presidential Advisory Group on the Economy (PAGE) which includes Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, Investment Consultant and Economist Kwame Pianim, former Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa Dr. K. Y. Amoako and Finance Minister Seth Terkper met with him to review the ongoing negotiations with the fund.
The meeting, the first for the year, also reviewed the implementation of the 2015 Budget and how to consolidate the gains so far made it also discussed extensively the impact of the world market price of crude oil on the Ghanaian economy.
By: Vivian Kai Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana