IMF approves third review of Ghana's ECF programme

 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board has approved the third review of the three year ECF programme for Ghana.

Find below a press release from the Ministry of Finance on the approval.

THE TURN AROUND STORY CONTINUES WITH THE IMF BOARD APPROVAL OF THE 3RD REVIEW OF THE 3 YEAR ECF PROGRAMME

1.    The IMF Executive Board met on Wednesday 28th September, to review and approve Ghana’s economic performance under the Third Review. This comes after the Mission in April/May 2016, the effort to meet the prior actions before the Board date, and the Follow up Mission from Monday, August 29 to Friday, September 2, 2016 to update the data used in the review.

2.    During this process, the Government made significant efforts and gave priority to completing the number of performance actions and prior actions introduced by the IMF.

3.    To expedite action towards the ultimate completion of the Third Review by satisfying these new prior actions, several of which are structural in nature, Government gave the completion of these activities its top priority. Government is glad to learn that, the IMF Board is satisfied with the developments made by Ghana and has approved the third review of the ECF programme.

4.    The approval is a further confirmation of the economic turnaround story.

5.    Prior to this development, the Government had secured an oversubscribed Eurobond – One of the only sovereigns in Africa to have done that in 2016. This attracted global investors amidst the successful tender offer with the utilisation of the balances in the Sinking Fund account.

6.    Following this achievement is the successful Ghana COCOBOD raising of US$1.8 billion bond from the international market.

7.    Not surprising to this development, the Moody’s rating agencies affirmed Ghana’s ratings to B3 with a stable outlook just this week.

8.    The Government would like to express its gratitude to all Ghanaians and especially the Parliament of Ghana for their continued support during this time.

9.   Looking forward, Government will continue its effort at fiscal consolidation and not be complacent with the present good news. In this vein, Government will continue to contain expenditures whilst mobilising domestic revenue.

10.        The prospect ahead is even brighter with the coming on board of the utilisation of the Policy Risk Guarantee to bring investments into the economy especially the oil and gas sectors. The use of the integration of the oil and gas to the other sectors of the economy especially, fertiliser development for the agriculture sector and bitumen production for road infrastructure.