{"id":406956,"date":"2017-07-30T03:03:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T03:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/07\/30\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\/"},"modified":"2017-07-30T03:03:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T03:03:21","slug":"govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/30\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t will \u2018complete IMF cycle\u2019 &#8211; Finance Minister clarifies President\u2019s comment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has moved to clarify what he says is a misrepresentation of President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s comments Tuesday on Ghana\u2019s Extended Credit Facility with the IMF.<\/p>\n<p>During presser held at the Flagstaff House, the President was asked if the three-year IMF deal entered into by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government would be extended beyond the April 2018 deadline.<\/p>\n<p>In response, the President answered: \u201cThere is no question about the IMF being extended. It is coming to an end next year with the budget that we are going to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/1002554\/Myjoyonline.com_InArticle_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p><b>The President also said<\/b> \u201cWe are in a situation where critical parts of the budget of our country require foreign grants on health and education. We\u2019ve got our way out of that situation and so that we can stand on our own two feet and design our future free of external influences. I believe strongly in that and I believe we are capable of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTypically in April next year, it will be completed under this government,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n<p>Because the government has been cagey with an express position on whether it will extend the credit facility that it vigourously criticised when it was in opposition, the President\u2019s statement on Tuesday came across as an emphatic position \u2013 with major news outlets reporting that the deal would end in April.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"joyonline-imf-report\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2120323239359_4425831404462.jpg\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"3115036671\" onload=\"pagespeed.CriticalImages.checkImageForCriticality(this);\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"citi-imf-report.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/9566970008218_9484542215346.jpg\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"862451500\" onload=\"pagespeed.CriticalImages.checkImageForCriticality(this);\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had said the facility was stifling government spending and has put an unhealthy limitation on public sector employment.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <b>Ghana may not continue with Mahama&#8217;s IMF <\/b><b>programme<\/b><b>&#8211; Ofori Atta hints<\/b><\/p>\n<p>However, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, released a statement Tuesday evening suggesting that the April deadline being reported is misleading, but instead, \u201cAfter the completion of the program at the end of the budget cycle in December 2018, government will not extend it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>The critical part of the statement reads:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government will like to clarify that, Ghana will complete the IMF programme through our budget cycle of January 2018 through December 2018 as stated by the President. The 2018 budget will, therefore, be the last budget under the current IMF program. After the completion of the program at the end of the budget cycle in December 2018, government will not extend it. The President\u2019s remarks should therefore not be interpreted to mean that the government is pulling out of the IMF programme. On the contrary, government will continue with and complete the IMF program through the budget cycle of January 2018 through December 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Click to read the full statement<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has moved to clarify what he says is a misrepresentation of President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s comments Tuesday on Ghana\u2019s Extended Credit Facility with the IMF. During presser held at the Flagstaff House, the President was asked if the three-year IMF deal entered into by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":406957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gov\u2019t will \u2018complete IMF cycle\u2019 - Finance Minister clarifies President\u2019s comment - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/30\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Gov\u2019t will \u2018complete IMF cycle\u2019 - Finance Minister clarifies President\u2019s comment - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has moved to clarify what he says is a misrepresentation of President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s comments Tuesday on Ghana\u2019s Extended Credit Facility with the IMF. During presser held at the Flagstaff House, the President was asked if the three-year IMF deal entered into by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Gov\u2019t will \u2018complete IMF cycle\u2019 &#8211; Finance Minister clarifies President\u2019s comment\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-30T03:03:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":434,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/\",\"name\":\"Gov\u2019t will \u2018complete IMF cycle\u2019 - Finance Minister clarifies President\u2019s comment - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-30T03:03:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/30\\\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gov\u2019t will \u2018complete IMF cycle\u2019 - Finance Minister clarifies President\u2019s comment - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/30\/govt-will-complete-imf-cycle-finance-minister-clarifies-presidents-comment\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Gov\u2019t will \u2018complete IMF cycle\u2019 - Finance Minister clarifies President\u2019s comment - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has moved to clarify what he says is a misrepresentation of President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s comments Tuesday on Ghana\u2019s Extended Credit Facility with the IMF. 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