IMF Staff Concludes Visit to Ghana

September 2, 2016

End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. This mission will not result in a Board discussion.

  • The team met with H.E. President John Dramani Mahama, Finance Minister Seth Terkper and other senior officials.

A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by Joël Toujas-Bernaté, visited Accra from August 29-September 2, 2016 to continue discussions on the third review of Ghana’s financial and economic program supported by the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF). [1]

Mr. Toujas-Bernaté released the following statement at the end of the visit:

“Following recent progress in implementing the IMF-supported program, including the passing by Parliament of several important legislations, we had constructive discussions with the authorities during this week on a few outstanding issues. The discussions focused mainly on updating the macroeconomic projections, firming up the fiscal outlook for 2016, and ascertaining that financial pressures faced by the main State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector will not pose additional risks to the central government budget.

“Understandings were reached on many of these issues. Outstanding questions remain with regards to certain elements of the legislations recently passed by Parliament and discussions will continue.

“The mission met with H.E. President John Dramani Mahama; Finance Minister Seth Terkper; Bank of Ghana Governor Dr. Abdul-Nashiri Issahaku; and other senior officials. The IMF team thanks the authorities for their hospitality, the collaboration, and the high-quality and constructive discussions.”


[1] The ECF is a lending arrangement that provides sustained program engagement over the medium to long term in case of protracted balance of payments problems. The arrangement for Ghana in an amount equivalent to SDR 664.20 million (180 percent of quota or about US$918 million) was approved on April 3, 2015 (see Press Release No.15/159).

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