IMF board to approve Ghana's US$3bn loan agreement by January 2023 - Redd Intelligence

Market and Research Firm, Redd Intelligence, has asserted that the approval of a financial bailout programme for Ghana by the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be done early January 2023.

It further said that if the IMF board fails to meet the January 2023 expected date, the programme would be approved latest by March 2023.

A myjoyonline report indicates that Red Intelligence in its latest analysis on Ghana’s debt restructuring said the staff-level agreement is in good shape and the end of December target looks realistic.

"IMF board approval of the programme is not expected until January [2023] at the earliest, after which the DSA [Debt Sustainability Analysis] parameters will become public,” Redd Intelligence said.

It would be recalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, announced that, it has reached a staff-level agreement with Ghana on economic policies and reforms to be supported by a new three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of about US$3 billion.

According to the IMF, the authorities’ strong reform programme is aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability of Ghana's economy.

An IMF team led by its Mission Chief for Ghana, Stéphane Roudet, said Ghanaian authorities have launched a comprehensive debt operation by way of restoring the country's public debt sustainability.

Redd Intelligence, while touching on Ghana's debt sustainability programme said it shows government is serious about achieving external debt restructuring in the first half of 2023.

On Monday, December 5, 2022, government rolled out a debt restructuring programme to restore its capacity to service its high-rising debt.

Under this programme, all domestic bondholders have been charged to exchange their instruments for new ones.

Existing domestic bonds as of December 1, 2022, will be exchanged for a set of four new bonds maturing in 2027, 2029, and 2037.

The annual coupons on all of these bonds will be set at 0% in 2023, 5% in 2024 and 10% from 2025 until maturity.

ESA/WA