- IMF Reaches Staff-Level Agreement With Ghana on Final ECF Review and 36-Month Policy Coordination Instrument
The International Monetary Fund has reached staff-level agreement with Ghana on the sixth and final review of the country’s Extended Credit Facility programme, while also agreeing on policies to support a new 36-month non-financing Policy Coordination Instrument as Ghana moves from crisis stabilisation to post-programme reform consolidation.
An IMF staff team led by Ruben Atoyan visited Accra from April 29 to May 15, 2026, for discussions covering the 2026 Article IV consultation, the final ECF review, and Ghana’s request for a Policy Coordination Instrument, known as PCI.
The Fund said Ghana’s ECF-supported programme had delivered “substantial stabilisation gains”, driven by strong reform efforts and significant progress in public debt restructuring. It cited sharply lower inflation, rebuilt international reserves, improved confidence in the cedi, stronger fiscal performance and marked gains in debt sustainability.
“Ghana’s ECF-supported program has delivered substantial stabilization gains. Inflation has declined rapidly, international reserves have been rebuilt, and confidence in the cedi has improved,” Mr Atoyan said at the end of the mission.
The IMF said fiscal performance strengthened markedly, with the primary surplus overperforming the programme target in 2025, while the public debt ratio declined sharply. Growth also exceeded expectations in 2025, supported by broad-based activity, while the external position strengthened on the back of historically high gold export receipts.
The staff-level agreement, however, also comes with a clear warning: Ghana’s recovery remains vulnerable to external shocks, fiscal risks and reform fatigue.
The IMF said the global environment remains uncertain, even though direct spillovers from the war in the Middle East have so far been limited. It warned that the conflict is expected to affect Ghana through higher energy, food and fertiliser prices, reinforcing the need for prudent policies and stronger resilience.
The shift from the ECF to a PCI marks an important transition in Ghana’s engagement with the Fund. Unlike the ECF, the PCI does not provide financing. Instead, it supports countries that do not need Fund resources but want a formal framework to anchor reforms, strengthen credibility and sustain policy discipline.
For Ghana, that means the IMF’s role is moving from emergency financing and crisis repair to policy surveillance and reform assurance.
The proposed PCI will focus on six broad objectives: sustaining growth-friendly fiscal adjustment, safeguarding debt sustainability, strengthening fiscal transparency and governance, particularly around state-owned enterprises, enhancing the monetary and exchange-rate policy framework, reinforcing financial-sector stability, and supporting economic diversification and inclusive growth.
The Fund said improvements in Ghana’s debt trajectory had created “carefully calibrated fiscal space” under the PCI, allowing the country to address development needs, promote youth employment and strengthen social spending while preserving the legislated 45% of GDP debt anchor by 2034.
IMF staff assessed that lowering Ghana’s primary surplus to 0.5% of GDP from 2027 would remain consistent with safeguarding debt sustainability, provided further progress is made in strengthening public financial management, fiscal risk management, state-owned enterprise governance and oversight of quasi-fiscal activities.
This is likely to be one of the most closely watched elements of the post-ECF framework. It signals that Ghana may gain some space to spend on development priorities, but only if the government can control the very risks that repeatedly pushed the economy into crisis in the past.
Debt restructuring remains central to that equation. The IMF said Ghana had made significant progress on both domestic and external debt restructuring. Bilateral debt relief agreements have been reached with about half of official creditors under the G20 Common Framework, with progress continuing toward agreements with remaining official and commercial creditors.
The Fund also described Ghana’s successful resumption of domestic Treasury bond issuance earlier this year as a signal of returning investor confidence. It urged the government to maintain prudent borrowing, implement the IMF-supported debt rollover strategy for 2027 and 2028, and strengthen debt management and transparency to secure durable market access.
On monetary policy, the IMF called for a forward-looking and prudent stance to firmly anchor inflation expectations. It said efforts to ensure effective monetary policy transmission and confidence should focus on strengthening the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet.
The Fund made specific reference to losses linked to the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, saying they underscored the importance of increasing transparency and limiting quasi-fiscal activities that weaken the central bank’s balance sheet. It said protecting the Bank of Ghana from DGPP-related quasi-fiscal risks and recognising future costs in the budget would improve accountability and oversight.
The IMF also said financial-sector stability remains a priority. It welcomed progress in bank recapitalisation, the unwinding of temporary regulatory forbearance introduced during the debt exchange, and stronger supervision of weaker institutions. But it warned that remaining vulnerabilities must still be addressed, including high non-performing loans and the need to implement reform and restructuring strategies for state-owned banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions.
Energy and cocoa emerged again as two of the most important fiscal risk areas.
In the energy sector, the IMF said priority should be given to tackling distribution and collection losses at the Electricity Company of Ghana, finalising private-sector participation in the distribution sector, strengthening payment discipline, clearing legacy arrears and reducing generation costs.
In the cocoa sector, the Fund said recent interventions had provided some relief, but deeper reforms were needed to address longstanding vulnerabilities. It called for a stronger legislative framework to streamline costs, more frequent farmgate price adjustments, improved efficiency and measures to ensure COCOBOD’s long-term financial sustainability.
The Fund also pressed Ghana to close gaps in its anti-corruption framework, saying this would strengthen governance and support investor confidence. It described meaningful public disclosure of standardised asset declarations, subject to privacy safeguards, as a key reform step.
For Ghana, the IMF’s message is both endorsement and caution. The country has stabilised faster than many expected. Inflation has fallen, reserves have improved, the cedi has regained some confidence, debt indicators have strengthened and growth has held up. But the Fund is warning that stabilisation will not survive if old patterns return — fiscal slippages, weak buffers, rising debt, reform reversals and hidden liabilities from state-owned enterprises.
The transition to a PCI may therefore become the real test of Ghana’s policy credibility.
Under the ECF, Ghana’s reforms were tied to financing and crisis pressure. Under the PCI, discipline will depend more heavily on institutions, political commitment and the government’s ability to resist the temptation to loosen policy too quickly as conditions improve.
The opportunity is clear: Ghana now has a chance to convert macroeconomic stabilisation into private-sector-led growth, job creation and development spending.
But the condition is equally clear: the hard-won recovery must be protected by stronger fiscal rules, transparent debt management, credible monetary policy, financial-sector repair, energy-sector reform, cocoa-sector restructuring and deeper governance reforms.
The IMF’s warning is therefore simple. Ghana may be leaving the emergency ward, but it is not yet free from relapse risk.
