ZCZC
BCN-21
GHANA-ECONOMY-BUDGET-IMF
Ghana says on track to exit IMF bailout
ACCRA, Nov 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Ghana is on track to exit its almost $1.0
billion bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund by the end of
the year, finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta said on Thursday.
“We are now on course to exit the IMF programme by the end of this year,”
he said in a speech to parliament presenting the 2019 budget proposal.
“We are grateful to the IMF and are determined to maintain a combination
of economic discipline and vibrancy that will ensure that we will not have to
be rescued in that manner in the future.”
The minister said Ghana was also on course to achieving its fiscal deficit
target of 3.7 per cent of GDP for the year, as it works to convince investors
it is committed to sound economic policies.
Gross domestic product is on track to expand 5.6 percent in 2018 and 7.6
per cent in 2019, he added.
President Nana Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party came to power calling for
economic reform after his predecessor John Dramani Mahama was forced to go to
the IMF for a bailout three years ago.
The new government has worked to chip away at Ghana’s debt and curtail the
deficit.
“The deficit projection for 2019 — at 4.2 per cent of GDP — is helped by
the recent GDP rebasing,” said Razia Khan, Africa economist at Standard
Chartered.
“What matters far more for the purposes of debt sustainability will be
whether primary fiscal surpluses can be comfortably achieved.”
BSS/AFP/HR/0958