Business News of Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Source: citifmonline.com
2017-07-18
The president said,so far the Fund has provided three disbursements to Ghana.
President Akufo Addo has stated emphatically that the government will not extend the deal with the international Monetary Fund (IMF).
He says the government will end the program within the scheduled date of April 2018.
Responding to a question on the apparent impact of the program on the government’s proposed projects, the President stressed that the NPP government will not go beyond the April 2018 deadline.
“Typically in April next year, it will be completed under this government,” he stated when he addressed the media on Tuesday.
There have been various comments whether or not the NPP government will extend the IMF deal agreed upon by the former NDC government.
Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo at his vetting indicated that the NPP government will review the deal.
The IMF has also asserted that it will consider a possible extension of the deal should government make any official request to that effect.
But Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta has maintained that the government is committed to ending the program in 2018.
Commenting further, President Nana Addo said the deal is expected to be concluded with the 2018 budget slated to be presented to Parliament in November 2017.
“The program will be coming to an end next year April with the budget that will be announced in November this year. There is not going to be a question of whether the program will be extended,” he remarked.
Ghana in 2015, entered into an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for economic assistance.
The deal concluded with a funding support of 918 million dollars to be disbursed under eight tranches.
So far, the Fund has provided three disbursements to Ghana.
Some of the key issues that have dominated the signing of the agreement include the freezing of public sector employment, reducing the budget deficit, zero financing of the budget deficit by the Bank of Ghana.
