IMF team unhappy with gov't disregard for bailout conditions

International Monetary Fund team led by Joel Touhas-Bernate, has expressed dissatisfaction over Ghana’s Central Bank amendment bill which  was passed not more than a month ago in parliament.

The IMF as part of the three-year bailout conditions with Ghana, expected that the Central Bank financing of government’s budget will be reduced to zero from the initial 5% of the budget. However parliament recently voted to keep the cap at 5%.



The IMF team currently reviewing government’s adherence to the fiscal  conditions under the bailout program as a pre-requiste to the release of the third tranche of the IMF funding,  stated clearly that , “outstanding questions remain with regards to certainelements of the legislation recently passed by Parliament and discussions will continue”.

The team visited Accra from August 29 to September 2, 2016 to continue discussions on the third review of Ghana’s financial and economic program supported by the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF). It stated  that the team  had  constructive discussions with the authorities during  the week on a few outstanding issues.

 “The discussions focused mainly on updating the macroeconomic projections, firming up the fiscal outlook for 2016, and ascertaining that financial pressures faced by the main State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector will not pose additional risks to the central government budget,” it said.

The mission met with H.E. President John Dramani Mahama; Finance Minister Seth Terkper; Bank of Ghana Governor Dr. Abdul-Nashiri Issahaku and other senior officials.