Stéphane Roudet
STÉPHANE ROUDET, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission Chief for Ghana, is billed to arrive in Ghana today with a team, to continue discussions with government on policies and reforms that the IMF can assist Ghana with.
Mr. Roudet and his team are also expected to engage with other stakeholders including the Bank of Ghana, Parliament, business associations and civil society groups.
The meetings with government and other stakeholders will end on October 7, 2022.
This is coming after the recent downgrade of Ghana’s credit risk status from CCC to CC by Fitch, an international rating agency.
According to Fitch, the downgrade depicts the increased likelihood that Ghana will pursue debt restructuring given the rising financing stress, with surging interest costs on domestic debt and a prolonged lack of access to Eurobond markets.
In July, this year, an IMF staff team led by Carlo Sdralevich, visited Accra to assess the current economic situation and discuss the broad lines of the government’s Enhanced Domestic Programme that could be supported by a Fund lending arrangement.
Vice President Bawumia, Finance Minister Ofori-Atta, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison engaged with the IMF team, after which it met Parliament’s Finance Committee, civil society organisations, and development partners, including UNICEF and the World Bank to engage on social spending.
“Ghana is facing a challenging economic and social situation amid an increasingly difficult global environment. The fiscal and debt situation has severely worsened following the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, investors’ concerns have triggered credit rating downgrades, capital outflows, loss of external market access, and rising domestic borrowing costs.
“In addition, the global economic shock caused by the war in Ukraine is hitting Ghana at a time when the country is still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic shock and with limited room for maneuver. These adverse developments have contributed to slowing economic growth, accumulation of unpaid bills, a large exchange rate depreciation, and a surge in inflation”, the IMF indicated after the meetings.
The fund continued that it held initial discussions on a comprehensive reform package to restore macroeconomic stability and anchor debt sustainability, adding, the team made progress in assessing the economic situation and identifying policy priorities in the near term.