IMF bailout will help restore investor confidence - Asafu-Adjaye

Investor confidence in the economy has gone down, Asafu-Adjaye

Government begins negotiations with IMF

Negotiations will reveal what Ghana qualifies for under the programme

A Senior Fellow at the Africa Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), Dr John Asafu-Adjaye, has said government seeking a bailout from the IMF will renew investor confidence in the economy.

Ghana’s economy has been facing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Russian-Ukrainian war.

Speaking during the 3businesscolloquium organized by Media General, he mentioned that investor confidence in Ghana’s economy declined as a result of a downgrade by international credit rating agencies.

“Personally, I wasn’t surprised because given the sovereign rating downgrade, that Ghana suffered, Ghana is not able to go into the capital market, investors’ confidence had gone down, capital flight. So, I thought that going to the IMF makes sense in terms of restoring investor confidence,” he said.

Meanwhile, the IMF team will meet Finance Minister Ken-Ofori Atta and others to begin negotiations today.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah added that the Finance Minister will lead the data-sharing exercise during the engagements to reveal what Ghana qualifies for and what the country does not qualify for under the IMF programme.

“The first part of the conversation is sharing of data. The data has its interpretation and the data will tell us what we qualify for and what we don’t qualify for,” he said.

JEA/FNOQ