IMF Still Not An Option - Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister, Ofori-Atta, has reiterated government’s decision not to also seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), despite Ghana’s current economic challenges. He said that Government is confident in its homegrown solutions in getting the economy to recover. Speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing in the Accra, he
said government will keep introducing more measures to raise revenue domestically to sustain the economy. He however said that Ghana continues to enjoy the technical support and advice received from IMF. We are members of the fund [IMF] and there are also two major points of intervention that we also have from the Fund. One is the
advice that we get and these programme interventions which bring us some resources. If you also see from the budget that we constructed for 2022 and the subsequent announces we’ve done, clearly the issue of Ghana having the capacity to think through the consolidation exercises and also disciplining itself with regard to the 20% to 30%
[expenditure] cut that we have also shown clearly is a direction that I guess even in a sense, the fund may be hesitant to push any further, he said. The minister further said the government is optimistic monies accrued from the implementation of the E-levy will help fix the current budget deficit. I am confident that E-levy opens a new
vista for a tax handle in a way which all Ghanaians will be paying something. I don’t know of any program which also has technology involved that will not have teething problems, but certainly, cataclysmic pronouncements by the people from the other side are not happening, he added.