Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said he is optimistic about the outcome of Ghana’s debt talks with external creditors.
According to him, in addition to the staff-level agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), conversations with the officials of the Paris Club indicate that debt talks will end favourably.
He added that the second tranche of the $3 billion IMF loan will be received in November this year.
“My deep sense is that we will get whatever is appropriate for the Fund Board to be able to make their decision in November. I am confident about it. And yes, we did meet with the officials from Paris Club and there was pretty positive assurance," he shared in an interview with Accra-based JoyNews.
“I also had the opportunity to meet the Governor of the PPOC of China which is their central bank and his assurances were also very positive. So really, I am confident that we would get to the Board and it will approve our next tranche,” he added.
Ken Ofori-Atta had earlier said discussions have so far been progressive therefore an agreement in principle should be expected soon enough.
“Discussions have been ongoing with creditor groups and their representatives. We have received scenarios from both bondholder groups including scenarios received last week from the international bondholders’ group
We are currently reviewing these scenarios and hope to converge towards a solution that respects the need for debt relief and is compliant with the Comparability of Treatment constraints,” he mentioned.
SSD/MA
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