By Cooper Inveen and Christian Akorlie
ACCRA (Reuters) – An International Monetary Fund team will visit Ghana next week to pursue discussions on the West African country’s request for a loan programme, two finance ministry sources said on Tuesday.
Ghana turned to the IMF for help in July as its balance-of-payments deteriorated and hundreds took to the streets to protest against economic hardship. An IMF staff team briefly visited the country two weeks later.
A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last month that an eventual agreement between Ghana and the IMF will likely consist of $3 billion in financing over a three year period, and contain elements of both Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programmes.
That source said a second staff visit would likely come in September, during which a team is expected to begin conducting a Debt Sustainability Assessment in collaboration with the World Bank.
Whatever shape an eventual agreement takes will largely depend on how Ghana approaches its 2023 budget, said the source, requesting anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the press. The budget will be released in November.
Any team visiting prior to that would likely advise on budget design, the source added.
The gold- and cocoa-producing nation’s government has been struggling to tame galloping inflation, reduce public debt and shore up the local currency. Its balance-of-payments deficit swelled to nearly $2.5 billion by the end of June from around $935 million in March.
(Reporting by Cooper Inveen and Christian Akorlie; Writing by Sofia Christensen and Cooper Inveen; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
