Financial analyst, Joe Jackson, has predicted a dire economic situation should government not complete its debt restructuring negotiations and policy by the end of January this year.

According to him, failure to complete negotiations in a timely manner would only spell more gloom and uncertainties in the economy which is now seeking IMF assistance and recently defaulted on its external debt payments.

In an interaction with Accra-based Citi FM, the Director of Business Operations at Dalex Finance called on government to expedite action on its negotiation to roll out the domestic debt exchange programme as announced.

“In my mind, by the end of this month [January], it should have been tied up, it is hard to imagine going into February without this issue being resolved then we will be heading into the doomsday scenario,” he predicted.

Touching on the recent gains made by the local currency against major trading currencies, Joe Jackson said the development has since calmed the nerves of investors on the international market.

“The reason why the markets haven’t punished Ghana as badly as they could have punished us is that there is a sense that the IMF will come in and provide some stability…but we then need to negotiate with all these constituencies that we are asking to take a haircut, and it has to be voluntary. So, we are walking on a knife edge, and we have to come to a conclusion very soon. I don’t think that there is a lot of time at all,” he is quoted by citinewsroom.com

The Finance Ministry has extended the deadline to undertake its domestic debt exchange programme to January 16, 2023.

This comes after the programme was earlier scheduled to take off on December 16, 2022. In a statement issued regarding the matter, the Ministry explained that the extension was meant to “secure internal approvals” from key stakeholders in the financial sector.










MA/FNOQ