The Finance Minister Seth Terkper will today [Tuesday], account to Parliament, the first five months of government’s implementation of the 2015 budget. This follows government’s attempts to manage a rather difficult situation amidst falls in global crude oil prices which forced government to readjust it for the year under review.
The situation is already said to have had negative impact on government’s curren account balance and foreign reserves.
IMF bailout programme
In February 2015, government secured US$918 million deal from the IMF to help government turn around the country’s ailing economy by helping to stabilise the cedi and reduce the fiscal deficit.
Some economists and analysts have also indicated that the money is not enough to fix the economy while some civil society groups have called for a renegotiation of the IMF programme, suggesting that the macro-economic targets are overly ambitious and will bring hardship on Ghanaians.
Government however has categorically stated that it will under no circumstance renegotiate the 3-year bailout programme.
The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper pointed out that renegotiating the terms of the deal at this point is impossible since Ghana is already on track.
He explained that the bailout is not “an imposition and I believe we are on track in the first review so are they calling for a renegotiation at this stage? It will not be helpful.” Cedi’s performance Ghana’s cedi has depreciated in excess of 26 percent against the dollar in 2015 alone.
The Bank of Ghana has assured that it will inject $20 million days a day to help revive the local currency.