Afrigather Monetary Economist, Prof. Lord Mensah, is skeptical concerning the authorities’s possibilities of tying down a bailout programme with the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF) within the final quarter of this 12 months.
This comes after the Managing Director of IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, in a gathering with the President of Ghana not too long ago assured {that a} deal between Ghana and the IMF ought to be reached and finalised earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
Describing Ghana as a “very good nation”, she reiterated the willpower of the Fund to work with the federal government and the Ministry of Finance, to make sure that an settlement is in place earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
Prof. Mensah reacting to this improvement expressed doubts about Ghana’s readiness for the bailout programme.
“We’re nearly by way of the final quarter of the 12 months, so if we get the programme with the IMF now, the fiscal affect won’t be as efficient as anticipated. I imagine that the IMF would wish to take the new-year into consideration, and a number of the insurance policies they’re going to wish to roll with us will likely be mirrored within the price range that will likely be learn in November. So they could be utilizing this era until the tip of the 12 months to draft the potential insurance policies,” he informed Citi Enterprise Information.
“This additionally reveals how ready the nation was for the IMF, and every part alerts that we weren’t prepared. That’s the reason we have been going up and down with them. I imagine they wish to match up a few of their insurance policies to go along with our fiscal 12 months,” he stated.
Ghana is earlier than the IMF for US$3 billion to assist the nation navigate by way of the hostile financial disaster it finds itself in on account of the adversarial results of the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing battle between Russia and Ukraine.
In accordance with President Akufo-Addo, as of now, plenty of work had been executed by Cupboard and the Ministry of Finance, and the doc to be introduced by the federal government “is prepared for the scrutiny of the IMF”.
IMF officers are anticipated again within the nation within the final week of September to open formal negotiations.
