ACCRA (Reuters) -Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo on Sunday said talks with the International Monetary Fund were going well and sought to reassure investors that the negotiations would not lead to a reduction in the face value of government bonds.
“No individual or institutional investor … will lose their money as a result of our ongoing IMF negotiations. There will be no haircuts,” the president said in a televised address designed to convince Ghanaians and the markets that the authorities can contain the country’s economic crisis.
In July, Ghana launched talks with the IMF for financial support as foreign investors dumped its debt and street protests broke out over economic hardship.
Inflation and currency depreciation have hit record levels despite repeated and severe lending rate hikes.
“I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time,” Akufo-Addo said.
(Reporting by Christian Akorlie and Cooper Inveen;Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Alison Williams and Barbara Lewis)
