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A visiting IMF mission to Ghana will from Wednesday June 17, 2015
start assessing government’s performance under the 3-year fund
programme.
The assessment which is likely to last for about two weeks will look
at how far government has come in meeting critical conditions and
targets under the bailout deal.
The review, which is likely to be concluded by the end of this month,
will look at whether government is doing enough to contain its rising
public debts which has hit about 88 billion Ghana cedis as at March
2015.
Basically the Fund will be doing a critical review of the country’s
debt management strategy.
Another area that will take the team’s attention is the cedi depreciation.
Sources say the IMF is seriously worried that its technical and
financial assistance to Ghana has not done much to halt the cedis’s
depreciation which has hit about 4 Ghana cedis 23 pessewas per dollar.
The cedi has depreciated by about 10 percent since the IMF program.
The FUND is therefore likely for push for some corrective actions or
tough measures on fiscal side and some monetary policy tightening to
help halt the cedi fall.
This could possibly result in a review of the entire targets set under
the 3-year programme on revenue, expenditure and debts targets.
For deputy Minister of Finance Mona Quartey, government has come far
in implementing measures set under the program which will result in
Ghana scoring some high marks at the end of the review.
The review today is critical to enable Ghana receive the remaining 804
million dollars under the IMF programme.
If Ghana passes its first review with the Fund then this might pavethe
way the second tranche of 114 million dollars to be disbursed to the
economy.
Some donor funds will also be expected to release frozen funds.
Credit: Myjoyonline.com
