Akufo-Addo aims at maintaining fiscal discipline as Ghana exits IMF program

President Nana Akufo-Addo has indicated that, that his administration will continue to maintain fiscal discipline in the aftermath of the exit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme on April 2.

The Executive Board of the IMF just approved the final disbursement of about US$185.2 million to Ghana.

The three-year arrangement was approved on April 3, 2015, and was aimed at restoring debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability in the country.

Speaking to the Ghanaian community resident in Valletta, Malta, he said there were lessons to be drawn from the 16th IMF programme, entered into by the  Mahama administration.

President Akufo-Addo stressed that discipline in the management of our public finances “has to be the basic element for the building of our economy, and that’s the lesson that the latest bailout program from the IMF should impress upon all of us.”

“It is about a fundamental and basic matter all of us as Ghanaians have to bear in mind, and that is discipline in the management of our public finances. It’s not easy to say that you have to live within your means but if you want to be able to do big things, you don’t spend money that you don’t have, that is always the road to chaos.”

Since assuming office in January 2017, President Akufo-Addo noted that his Government has now finally been able to bring the fiscal deficit under control, which hovered around 7.3% at the end of 2016, to under 3.9%.

“It is my intention that we keep it there. We keep it there because it is the signal to investors, it is the signal to those who look at the fundamentals of your economy, that the basic elements of that economy are in a good state,” he added.

If Ghana was able to stay disciplined, “the benefits to us are going to be very rapid and very dramatic, and that transformation of our national economic structure, which all of us are waiting for, will be very soon around the corner,” President Akufo-Addo stated.