Ghana And IMF Officials To Meet On Dec. 1st

The Government of Ghana is to meet with top officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deliberate on fresh ideas which would enable government draw a new economic programme for the country.

This would assist Ghana to implement its economic agenda geared towards reducing poverty and accelerating economic growth. Further to this, documents made available to Daily Guide indicate that representatives of the Fund have agreed to visit the country from the 1st to the 13th of December, for discussions, and study proposals to be submitted by the Government Economic Management Team. Daily Guide has learnt that a high-level meeting was held at the Castle on November 18, between President Kufuor and a sub-committee of the Economic Management Team, made up of Senior Minister, Hon J.H. Mensah, Finance Minister, Hon Yaw Osafo Maafo, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Paul Acquah.

The meeting will seek to draw a new programme with representatives of the IMF and to schedule a convenient date for the Fund’s technical mission to visit Ghana. Thereafter, it was agreed that the mission should visit the country from the 1st to 13th December, 2002, which decision the Finance Minister has since November 19th, communicated to the Fund, with positive results in return. Daily Guide has also learnt that other development partners such as Britain have been briefed in respect of the options and rational behind the decision which is targeted at stabilising the economy and to create new conditions for poverty reduction, and to promote faster growth.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister, Hon Osafo Maafo, has told Daily Guide that there was no stormy meeting at the Castle early this week over the controversial International Finance Consortium (IFC) loan. Speaking to Daily Guide yesterday, the minister observed that a report carried on the Ghanaweb site on Wednesday was absolutely false and had no merit whatsoever. He explained that the meeting mentioned in the report posted on the internet, instead discussed the IMF, and not IFC, and was never stormy. He found it strange that a so-called “Castle deep throat”, should give them such misleading information which they in turn, churned out to the public.

In a related development, Daily Guide has learnt that President Kufuor has firmly decided to abandon sourcing the controversial IFC loan. According to the reports, this is in reaction to both internal and external concerns raised by civil groups, including the vociferous media, the Minority in Parliament, the Bretton Woods institutions, Canada, Germany, Britain and other stakeholders involved in the economic programmes of the country.