Ghana Was Working Towards Good Policies Before Covid, War Struck; IMF Boss Says

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has once again blamed external factors for Ghana’s economic mess.

Ghana is currently seeking a US$3 billion bailout from the Fund to support its 2023 Budget after losing access to the capital market.

The government has been blaming external factors for the economic downturn, however, the opposition argues otherwise.

In September 2022, the IMF boss said Ghana’s economic woes were due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Like everybody on this planet, you have been hurt by exogenous shocks. First the pandemic then the Russia-Ukraine war and what we need to realise is we need to realise it’s not because of bad policies in the country but because of this combination of shocks”, she said.

Her statement drew backlash from some members of the opposition party including former President John Dramani Mahama.

“The consequences of the government’s ill-advised policies such as the botched, insensitive and dubious cost in closing down locally owned banks, unbridled levels of corruption and lack of accountability including the mismanagement of COVID-19 funds, unconventional borrowing practices riddled with opaqueness and conflicts of interest, resulting in an unsustainable debt envelope, costly, experimental and untested programmes, etc., cannot be ignored in understanding the current dire state of the Ghanaian Economy.

“Therefore, the rhetoric that emanates from international diplomats must reflect local realities. The Ghanaian economy must be managed first for the Ghanaian who lives and experiences it daily, not just for an international audience”, Mr Mahama said in a statement.

These backlashes do not seem to have gotten to her.

At a round table discussion on the sideline of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the IMF boss repeated the statement as she communicated the numerous requests for a bailout from member states.

She said Ghana was on the right path with regard to its policies, however, the pandemic and the war disrupted the gains.

“We recognize that we are in a world in which exogenous shocks more often than before, hit innocent bystanders. Ghana has been working toward good policies for quite some time and then COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war hit and that significantly undermined Ghana.”

She assured of the Fund’s preparedness to help member states.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini