The finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has stated that the debt exchange programme government is embarking on is a part of the requirement for securing financial support from the International Fund.

According to the government, “the IMF serves as a very good catalytic institution to kick in a lot of multilateral and bilateral support.”

It also added the 2023 budget is part of the government’s policy measures to bring debt back to sustainable levels.

The finance minister announced the beginning of a debt exchange program to restore the country’s high debt levels.

He said: “the alternative would be a far worse economic crisis, with protracted closure from international markets (including imported goods and services) and further domestic economic instability both for the real economy and the financial sector. It would also mean depleted fiscal resources to support the neediest.”

He added that the government is expected to reach some level of agreement with the International monetary fund for financial support.

“We expect to reach a Staff-Level Agreement soon on an IMF programme aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and protecting the most vulnerable. To this end, as a government, we are determined to implement wide-ranging structural and fiscal reforms to restore fiscal and debt sustainability and support growth,” he said.







SSD/FNOQ