Julie Kozack
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Ghana to quickly reach an agreement with the Official Credit Committee over its external debt restructuring.
IMF’s Director of Communications, Julie Kozack, at a press conference in Washington DC said once Ghana has finalised the debt exchange on the local front, it is important for the country to conclude negotiations with its external bilateral creditors.
“The next steps on debt restructuring are for the Official Creditor Committee to agree with the authorities on the specific modalities of debt relief and for the authorities to continue to engage with their external private creditors for relief on their external debt.
These discussions are ongoing, and we hope that the OCC, the Official Creditor Committee, and the Ghanaian authorities will find an agreement soon. The government has recently finalized the restructuring of its domestic debt”, she said.
Ghana is eyeing some debt forgiveness from the external creditors in a bid to bring debt to sustainable levels.
This is because a huge part of its $52.3 billion external debt is owned by these external creditors.
Last week, an IMF mission staff arrived in Ghana for its first major assessment of the US$ 3billion bailout programme.
Sources confirm that the two sides; the government being represented by officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana as well the visiting staff have so far had some constructive and productive discussions.
The indication is that Ghana has shown remarkable resilience when it comes to economic performance and policies underlying the first review of the extended credit facility.
This implies that some steady progress has been made. Ghana’s IMF-supported programme is still hinged on restoring macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability.
The balance Ghana has to find is to strengthen revenue collection and cut down on public expenditure to ensure fiscal consolidation.
The country’s chances of securing the next tranche of US$ 600 million remains high should it be successful in this review pending the IMF’s board’s decision in November.
A Business Desk Report