Joël Toujas-Bernaté, IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to disburse the 5th tranche of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to Ghana in the coming weeks.
It follows the fifth review of Ghana’s performance under the programme last week.
The Fund has not been very satisfied with government’s failure to meet revenue targets, considering the ambitious policies being rolled out.
“The Fund will not be satisfied but in so far as you also cut expenditure, then you are good to some extent. If your revenue is underperforming, and you still hold on to your projected expenditure, then that is troubling but government could reduce the expenditure to match the shortfall in revenue,” Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah declared.
The meeting was largely with some government officials from the Presidency, Parliament as well as Finance Ministry.
It is expected that the Fund will approve the disbursement of some $110 million to Ghana.
Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah believes the release of the amount should address critical needs of the economy.
This, according to him, should help address the potential shortfall to be witnessed in some critical sectors of the country’s economy.
“Then again the economy will suffer in terms of economic growth, job creation and the rest.
It is not that somebody is shirking the responsibilities or anything of that sort. But sometime the projections are too ambitious.”
The country went to the IMF in 2015 for an External Credit Facility of about US$918 million under the John Mahama administration.
Dr Assibey also indicated that the discussions covered all the issues from monetary to fiscal, trade, energy bond, among others.
The Fund, after its fourth review, disbursed $94.2 million.
This brings total disbursements under the arrangement to about $565.2 million.
– Citifmonline