Senior Minister-designate Yaw Osafo Marfo has stated emphatically that Ghana’s programme with the International Monetary Fund will be reviewed by the Akufo-Addo government.
Ghana’s three-year agreement with the IMF will see the disbursement of a total of 918 million dollars (USD 918,000,000), to Ghana.
The programme aims to restore debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability in the country; to foster a return to high growth and job creation, while protecting social spending.
Ghana has so far received a total of about US$464.6 million as disbursements from the IMF.
The latest was on September 28, 2016.
Responding to questions during his vetting in Parliament Friday, Mr. Osafo Marfo said the current state of the programme squeezes out “fiscal space out of the economy” and therefore needs a review.
“We will certainly review the IMF programme. The current state of the programme squeezes the fiscal space out of the economy, but our manifesto needs physical space to implement.
“Most of the targets set under the programme have been missed already and so the IMF themselves will be raising questions even if we don’t do anything about it. The fiscal deficit was thought to be 5% but from what I am seeing from the Bank of Ghana, we are doing around 8%, so we will certainly review the programme,” he said.
