Ghana Expects IMF Loan Approval By June, Financial Assurances By May1 min read
The embattled West African country secured a staff-level agreement with the IMF for the $3 billion support package in December. But the Fund requires bilateral lenders to provide assurances they will restructure its debt as a condition of signing off on the loan.
He added that $20 billion of external debt was eligible for restructuring, 66% of the external debt stock. Of that, $5.4 billion in official creditor debt will be restructured.
A memorandum of understanding with official creditors and an agreement in principle on Eurobond restructuring are expected by July, with a 2030 Eurobond partially guaranteed by the World Bank included in the restructuring, the minister said.
He added that Ghana needs a $1.5 billion financial stability fund to ensure appropriate solvency and liquidity.
“The World Bank has fortunately agreed to support this fund with a quarter of a billion… and government, looking at the space we have, also committing about $500 million to that,” Ofori-Atta said at the virtual briefing.
Ghana’s net foreign exchange reserves fell sharply in 2022 and are currently $2.6 billion, central bank governor Ernest Addison said in the briefing.
The government also aims to bring rampant inflation down to 8% in the medium term and is targeting real GDP growth of 5% over the same period, a presentation accompanying the briefing said.
Ghana’s inflation reached a more than two-decade high of 54.1% in December, but has since slowed, falling to 45% year-on-year in March.