IMF new Chief meets BoG Governor, Dr Ernest Addison
A 2-member delegation, led by the new IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, Stéphane Roudet, on Wednesday, 7th September 2022, paid a courtesy call on the Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison and the Management of the Bank.
This follows Stéphane Roudet’s appointment as the new IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, effective 1st September 2022.
The new Mission Chief was in the country to engage with various government institutions and other key stakeholders ahead of Ghana’s Fund supported programme.
In Governor Addison’s team were the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari, Directors of Research, Financial Markets, Financial Stability and Banking Supervision Departments of the Bank.
Meanwhile, Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, has noted the IMF is determined to have a deal with Ghana by the end of this year.
“I am very determined for us to indeed reach an agreement by the end of this year,” she quipped in an interview earlier this week.
Ghana is seeking to raise some $3bn Balance of Payment IMF support programme to help resolve some of its immediate economic challenges.
The government began discussions with the Bretton Wood institution in July 2022, reversing President Akufo-Addo’s administration pledge not to seek a financial programme from the IMF.
Ghana has been struggling to stabilise a rising debt which hit 78.3% of Gross Domestic Product at the end of June 2022, from 62.5% five years ago.
The struggling economy has impacted negatively on the cedi which has hit GHS 10 to a dollar. This has also pushed inflation up significantly.
Ratings agency, S&P on Friday, August 5th, 2022, revised Ghana’s rating from B-/B to CCC+/C, putting the country’s creditworthiness into junk status.
It also reviewed the country’s economic outlook to negative, reflecting “Ghana’s limited commercial financing options, and constrained external and fiscal buffers.”
