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Ghana will reengage with its international bondholders from next week, finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta told Reuters on Monday, as the country seeks to build on the momentum of a deal last week to restructure $5.4 billion of official creditor debt.<\/strong><\/p>\n The West African country will seek to continue discussions after meeting holders of its around $13 billion in outstanding Eurobonds in Marrakech in October, Ofori-Atta said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting.<\/p>\n Officials will also travel to China on Jan. 23, he added. China and France co-chair Ghana\u2019s Official Creditor Committee and the agreement reached with the committee was key to unlocking more funding from a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue loan.<\/p>\n Ghana defaulted on most of its overseas debt in December 2022 after debt servicing costs soared. It is looking to restructure $20 billion of external debt, which totalled about $30 billion at the end of 2022, and has already restructured most local debt.<\/p>\n Restructuring negotiations last year was a \u201cvery difficult, painful process,\u201d but Ghana has \u201cbuilt pretty good momentum\u201d, Ofori-Atta said.<\/p>\n The IMF board will meet on Friday to decide on a $600 million disbursement from Ghana\u2019s bailout program. Getting approval is usually seen as a formality once a meeting has been scheduled and would unlock funding from other multilateral lenders.<\/p>\n The World Bank was expected to decide on $550 million of \u201csorely needed\u201d funding on Jan. 25, Ofori-Atta added.<\/p>\n Ghana is reworking its debts under the Common Framework, a restructuring process set up by the G20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic that has been criticised for slow results.<\/p>\n Ofori-Atta said the 2022 macroeconomic situation had been \u201ccage rattling\u201d, but was improving, and he pointed to a rise in revenue and a decline in inflation.<\/p>\n The latest data showed consumer inflation had slowed to 23.2% year-on-year in December compared to the more than 50% when the country tipped into default.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, growth was running at 3%, more than twice the IMF\u2019s projected rate of 1.2%, Ofori-Atta said.<\/p>\n