Government says a formal request for financial and technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be made “pretty soon”.
The request, which is expected to reach the Washington-based lender by end of August, would detail the specific support which the Ministry of Finance is convinced will put Ghana’s troubled economy back on its feet.
Fierce criticism from some economists and political commentators followed an announcement by government last week that it would soon open discussions with the Bretton Woods institution in a bid to address current challenges facing the economy – falling cedi, spiraling inflation, high cost of living to mention a few.
Speaking to Joy Business from Washington, Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, said the request to IMF “will highlight the areas of difficulties…what we are doing ourselves and the fact that this programme is supposed to be negotiated for the first in the contest of Ghana being a middle-income country”.
Mr Terkper, who is with President John Mahama together with other dignitaries in Washington for the US-Africa Summit also revealed that President Mahama “is having discussions with the president of the World Bank in addition to the head of USAIDS”, on ways to revive the Ghana’s economy.
In a related development Ghana has already started reaping the benefits that might come along with a possible IMF programme.
For instance interest which Ghana is paying on its second Eurobond has dropped substantially — dropping 8.14% to 5.2% after government announced plans to go for the IMF bailout.
This should mean that Ghana is likely to get a favourable rate when the country issues its third Eurobond.
[Posted by GN]
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