"Ghana\u2019s President-Elect Says IMF Deal to Cap Radical Reforms"

" Ghana\u2019s President-Elect Says IMF Deal to Cap Radical Reforms \r\n \u00a0Ghana\u2019s incoming president John Mahama said a financing program with the International Monetary Fund will limit his government\u2019s ability to undertake immediate radical reforms, a week after voters handed him a hefty mandate to fix the nation\u2019s crippling debt burden and high cost of living. \r\n The West African nation last year sought IMF help after it defaulted on debt that had ballooned to almost 100% of gross domestic product by the end of 2022. Under the IMF program, the government must achieve a primary budget surplus of 0.5% of gross domestic product by the end of this year. \r\n \u201cWhat it means is that the budgets must align with the IMF program, so there\u2019s not much leverage in there for making the kind of radical reforms that you might immediately need to make,\u201d Mahama, whose National Democratic Congress got about 56.6% of the vote in the Dec. 7 presidential elections, said in an interview with Voice of America posted on X. \u201cWe already have requested some discussion with the IMF because we\u2019re not part of the negotiation of this program.\u201d \r\n Last week, the IMF said it was open to renegotiating Ghana\u2019s $3 billion financing program with the incoming administration, provided accompanying reforms aren\u2019t jeopardized. Mahama reiterated an earlier position he won\u2019t jettison the program but says he sees room to tweak it and help stabilize the economy, with inflation at 23% at the end of November. \r\n \u201cBringing down inflation is the number one priority. Stabilizing the currency is number two. Bringing the deficit down, cutting expenditure, increasing revenues \u2014 I mean, those are the things that we need to be looking at,\u201d Mahama said. "

"Ghana\u2019s President-Elect Says IMF Deal to Cap Radical Reforms"

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