Gov’t awaits 7 more disbursements from IMF

There are seven more disbursements to get into government’s chest as part of the three-year extended credit facility reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This was made known on Tuesday, July 21 by the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, on the floor of Parliament.

The country has already received the first tranche of $114.75 million from the $918 million-deal with the second expected next month.

The disbursements will be performance-based, according to the Finance Minister.

Ghana scored satisfactory marks in IMF’s first review of the deal.

“All the performance criteria were met except for the ceiling on central bank financing to the government, which was technically missed by a small margin,” said the Finance Minister.

“The Government is keenly observing this particular programme benchmark given its implications for the overall financing levels that have been recorded this year.’

Many have attributed government’s inability to pay some public sector workers and rising prices in fuel products to a surreptitious by-product of the IMF deal.

But Mr Terkper says bold measures had to be taken in order to fulfill the purpose of restoring confidence in the economy.