The Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has warned that key performance indicators to be assessed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff in the upcoming 4th review of the Programme in April 2025 are under threat.
The indicators, such as primary balance (commitment), inflation, and social protection spending for end-December 2024, are likely to be missed.
Presenting the 2024 Budget today, March 11, 2025, Dr. Forson said the economy remains in distress despite the gains made under the IMF-supported Programme, which he described as achieved through the painful sacrifice of domestic bondholders, external creditors and taxpayers.
“In addition, all structural benchmarks due by end of December 2024 are likely missed”, he said.
According to him, inflation worsened in 2024 from 23.2% in 2023 to 23.8% in 2024, noting that the 2024 end-period inflation also exceeded the budget target of 15% by 8.8 percentage points and the IMF central target of 18% by 5.8 percentage points.
This, he said, has triggered a discussion with the IMF under the Monetary Policy Consultation Clause.
Again, he pointed out that the primary balance on commitment basis worsened from a deficit of 0.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 to a deficit of 3.9% in 2024.
“The primary balance on commitment basis target for 2024 was a surplus of 0.5% of GDP. Sadly, the previous government recorded a deficit of 3.9% of GDP. This represents a slippage of a whopping 4.4 percentage points”.
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