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The International Monetary Fund [IMF] Mission Chief for Ghana, Stephane Roudet, has stated that the fund is not concerned about the Government’s domestic debt exchange programme but to make sure the debt is going to be sustainable.
According to him, the Mission has come in to make everything effective about the circumstances of the country as well as to engage with broad range of stakeholders, Ministries, Finance Committee, Civil Society, Unions, Representatives of Private Sectors and not just the Government.
He added that the programme is to have an in-depth understanding of what is actually happening on the ground and to address the Ghanaian problem citizens are facing.
In an interview with Citi Breakfast Show, he stated that, “the IMF does not instruct nor force a country on what to do but the Fund understands what the authorities are willing to do to address their problems and to support in addressing these crises.”
“It is not for us to speculate what the country will decide eventually, we are just in the middle of the process, so I think the best thing is to let the Government and its creditors discuss that.
“We are very concerned about the overall picture, making sure that eventually, the strategy will deliver. But the details of how this debt restructuring is being implemented; what type of debts are being restructured, the relationships with creditors, whether domestic or external, the parameters and what type of relief the Government will be seeking from, the different creditors, all of that is very much for the Government to determine, and they are all sovereign decisions,” he noted.
He made these remarks while answering whether the Debt Exchange Programme is the main vehicle to attaining the sustainability among others, since it looks like no one has agreed.
He said it is very important for the institutions to make sure debt is going to be sustainable and government able to repay its debt on a sustainable basis and that is the priority of the IMF.
Mr. Roudet said some policies has been discussed with the Government to make sure the policies delivered will restore economic stability, bring down inflation and to stabilize public finances.
The IMF and the Government of Ghana came to a staff-level agreement on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, for the $3billion facility thus, the first phase hoped to be pushed to the country in the first quarter of 2023.
