The International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of ongoing discussions to develop a bailout program for Ghana, has deployed two delegations to hold simultaneous meetings with separate teams from the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance today.
This comes a day after paying courtesy calls on the Vice President, the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
A document sighted by the Citi Business News notes that as part of today’s deliberations, the IMF team meeting the delegation from the Ministry of Finance will focus on examining government’s fiscal expenditure and projections for the year 2022.
The first day of full meetings which started around 9 am at both the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, will see the respective teams meet officials of both institutions to officially begin work on the bailout being sought by the country, as part of efforts to quicken Ghana’s build back in the face of challenges induced by the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Russia-Ukraine crises.
The IMF team will also look at the public sector wage bill, and reforms in the government payroll.
It will also focus on the overview of Internally Generated Funds, its sources and uses, the overview of the Cocoa sector budget transfers since 2017 and planned actions in 2022, the status of Financial sector payments, planned spending in 2022, impact on high commodity prices and currency depreciation in planned expenditures.
The IMF team meeting the Central Bank will focus on the FX Market and Reserves Management, its Recent developments and outlook, Ghana’s Reserves position, and its FX reserves flexibility vs reserves drawdown.
The team will also examine the outlook of the country’s recent Monetary and Inflation Developments, the country’s monetary policy stance, and the country’s debt situation.
Recent data by the Bank of Ghana put Ghana’s total public debt stock, as of March 2022, at GH¢391.9 billion.