President-Elect John Dramani Mahama has detailed his administration's strategy to stabilise Ghana's economy.
According to him, macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability are necessary to rectify the turbulent economy.
In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA), Mahama stated that unlike previous engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which focused solely on macroeconomic stability, the current situation requires addressing both stability and debt issues.
John Mahama confirmed that his government will continue with the existing IMF programme, despite not being part of its initial negotiation.
“In all the other times that we've gone to the IMF, it's just been for macroeconomic stability. But we have problems now, and so we are going to continue the IMF programme. We already have requested some discussion with the IMF because we were not part of the negotiation of this programme. And so we need to look at how we can all be on the same wavelength in terms of implementing the programme.
“We're not jettisoning the programme, but within the programme, I'm sure that there can be some leverage for tweaking," Mahama stated.
He also indicated that any adjustments would be made in agreement with the IMF, ensuring the programme continues until its conclusion.
The president-elect outlined key priorities for his administration, including bringing down inflation, stabilising the currency, reducing the deficit, cutting expenditure, and increasing revenues.
He acknowledged that while the current IMF programme limits the scope for radical reforms, his government would deepen the ongoing reforms and introduce their own programme after the current extended credit facility ends.
“The budgets must align with the IMF programme, so there's not much leverage in there for making the kind of radical reforms that you might immediately need to make. But we would accept the reforms that are being made under the IMF and deepen them when we have our own programme after the current extended credit facility runs out.
“Bringing down inflation is our number one priority. Stabilising the currency is number two. Bringing the deficit down, cutting expenditure, and increasing revenues. I mean, those are the things that we need to be looking at,” he added.
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