It is emerging that Ghana may have met only one out of the eleven targets set with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the extended credit facility program.<\/p>\n
The targets were among others to guide the government in achieving key economic growth standards and restore economic stability.<\/p>\n
Ghana in 2015, entered into an agreement for 918 million dollars to support her economy.<\/p>\n
Citi Business News\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0analysis has shown that Ghana\u2019s underperformance in majority of the targets may have triggered the extension by the current government.<\/p>\n The eleven targets comprised; a\u00a0ceiling\u00a0on\u00a0gross\u00a0credit\u00a0to\u00a0government\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0Bank\u00a0of\u00a0Ghana, a\u00a0ceiling\u00a0on\u00a0wages\u00a0and\u00a0salaries, a\u00a0continuous\u00a0non accumulation\u00a0of\u00a0domestic\u00a0arrears as well as a\u00a0continuous\u00a0non-accumulation\u00a0of\u00a0new\u00a0external\u00a0arrears.<\/p>\n But it appears government has only been able to meet the condition having to do with the financing of the government\u2019s budget deficit from the central bank.<\/p>\n For the first time, the previous NDC administration in 2016 didn\u2019t seek funding from the central bank to finance its budget deficit.<\/p>\n This has also been confirmed by the Bank of Ghana that it will be cutting back and eventually stop financing the deficit.<\/p>\n For those targets that have not been met, a key one is the rising percentage of the public sector wages and salaries.<\/p>\n For instance, a study of government\u2019s expenditure pattern shows that wages and salaries has risen from an estimated 9 billion cedis in 2015 to a projected 14 billion cedis at the end of 2017.<\/p>\n This also translates into a GDP ratio of 6.7 percent in 2015 to 6.9 percent of GDP by the end of 2017.<\/p>\n For 2017, the government\u2019s budgeted expenditure target is twenty-five percent of the projected expenditure of 55.9 billion cedis.<\/p>\n On debts, Ghana\u2019s total debt stock reached 137.2 billion cedis or 67.5 percent of GDP as at May this year.<\/p>\n Of this, the external component is 73.3 billion cedis while the domestic component is at 63.9 billion cedis.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana\u2019s inflation target is 8 percent plus or minus 2 is expected to be reached by 2018.<\/p>\n This optimism by the central bank is premised on the declining trend in inflation which stood at 11.9 percent in July this year.<\/p>\n Govt \u2018forced\u2019 to extend IMF agreement by one year<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday September 11, 2017, a Deputy Finance Minister, Kweku Kwarteng suggested that government was compelled by the IMF to extend the deal by one more year.<\/p>\n Mr. Kwarteng explained that though the country couldn\u2019t meet most of the performance targets, the prevailing stance by the Fund to end the agreement in April 2018 warranted a decision to extend it to get the full disbursements as initially scheduled.<\/p>\n Eleven targets set under IMF deal<\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0indicative\u00a0targets\u00a0under\u00a0the\u00a0programme\u00a0are\u00a0as\u00a0follows:<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Pius Amihere Eduku\/citibusinessnews.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is emerging that Ghana may have met only one out of the eleven targets set with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the extended credit facility program. The targets were among others to guide the government in achieving key economic growth standards and restore economic stability. Ghana in 2015, entered into an agreement for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121,32,171,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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