We will stay the course – Prez Akufo-Addo assures IMF boss
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the next important thing to do after stabilising the Ghanaian economy is to engender rapid economic growth that would benefit majority of Ghanaians from the country’s development.
“That is the main task before us and is a task that has aggravated,” the President indicated. This is particularly important because his government’s term comes to an end this year (2024) and would need to justify his government’s administration over the last 8 years.
Speaking with the IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva who called on him at the Jubilee House on Sunday, President Akufo-Addo said Ghana’s recent engagement with the Fund has clearly paid off and turned the country’s economy around.
He said Ghana’s strong predicted growth, systematic decline in inflation and interest rates and a relatively stable exchange rate had shown that the country’s economy is stabilising.
Ghana’s strong partnership with Kristalina Georgieva led IMF according to President Akufo-Addo had been fruitful underpinned by a strong sense and clear understanding of the problems of Ghana and “minded to try and look for ways of alleviating and helping us make progress.”
He said the IMF Boss competence, sense of clarity and the urgency to find ways of solving Ghana’s economic challenges despite the difficult environment the country is operating, is a feeling that rans through several governments across the African continent whose leaders have spoken strongly and positively about her.
“So we have to thank you for that,” he told the IMF Boss.
At this stage of Ghana’s progress with the Fund, President Akufo-Addo said there was the need to discuss dispassionately about where they are, the way forward and if there was the need for steadiness to stay through for the fundamentals that had been agreed upon to be achieved.
He said in spite of the ensuing discussions, Government was committed to the arrangements that it had entered into with the Fund and would make sure it stay the course.
IMF boss, Kristalina Georgieva on his part said there were two issues that she was committed to and the first was the quick growth of the Ghanaian Economy and the World at large.
For Ghana, the IMF Boss said the quick growth was needed as a result of the difficult period of the country’s high debt levels and deficits caused by the shocks of Covid-19 and Russian Ukraine war.
Ghana like many other countries, she said did not appreciate the enormity and size of the global shock and particularly in an election year, there was more the country could sustain.
The main lesson from the country’s experience, she indicated was for the Government to do the right things now in order to build the strongest possible foundation for growth.
She said the world economy had been quite resilient after the pandemic as 2024 global growth was better than anticipated last year mostly due to a strong US economy and fairly resilient economics across the world … “inflation is going down and we expect to see interest rate also go down.”
Why the global economy had shown resilience this time according to Kristalina Georgieva was that after the global financial crises in 2008, most countries build strong backing systems — strong reserve systems, good fundamentals “so the lessons from 2008 led to a better performance of the world economy in 2023 and 2024.
Secondly, she said even though global growth was better than they feared, it was week compared to before 2019 where global growth on average for the decade was 2.8 percent.
“Over this year’s, from last year and looking into the next couple of years, we expect it to be around 2 percent. This is almost a whole percentage point lower.”
That the IMF Boss would be difficult to engender the desired growth rates unless the world finds ways to reinvigorate growth, we cannot have the aspirations of countries and people for better opportunities met,” she warned.
Kristalina Georgieva earlier on Sunday met with the Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison.
She will on Monday attend an Artificial Intelligence (AI) conference jointly organised by the Ministry of Finance and her organisation, the International Monetary Fund under the theme, “AI as a Catalyst to Transform Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
As part of her visit, Madam Georgieva will also be meeting with selected Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and women groups.
