Delegation in Washington to stay behind to conclude IMF negotiations - Ofori-Atta

Ghana's delegation to the Group of Seven (G7) meeting with African Finance Ministers in the US will be staying after the meeting to conclude negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, before coming back to Ghana, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister has revealed. According to him, the team extending their time will enable them to make some fair decisions. “We still are working through and as you know, we are staying beyond the Fund, the World Bank meetings through, maybe the 20th, so we will continue with the Mission and the work. We pray that that may give us enough time to be able to come to some fair decisions on the outlook. “I can tell you that the Fund staff is very motivated, which is good and we are 24/7, so the combination of their own enthusiasm and our clarity on the work that has been done to fulfil the President’s promise. If you look at the turnout of discussions for this annual meeting clearly, the world is recognizing that something different has to be done,” Ken Ofori-Atta said as quoted by Accra-based 3news. Meanwhile, it's been reported that the G7 during the meeting asked the World Bank to provide financial support to Ghana and other African countries to enable them to deal with the impact of the economic crisis caused by force majeure. The G7 is made of an informal grouping of seven of the world’s advanced economies; namely: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America and European Union. This group invited finance ministers from South Africa, Senegal, Togo, Zambia, Ghana, Guinea, Rwanda, Chad, Tunisia and Morocco for the all-important meeting. The meeting with the African Financial Ministers brings together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness. You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV: PEN/SARA