THE United States of America (USA) has finally broken its marathon silence on the controversial International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme for Ghana.
The programme which is expected to take off next year, will position Ghana’s economy better for growth and development.
The US Ambassador to Ghana, Gene Cretz told journalists at an end of year roundtable that the US government believes that the programme and other measures including the Millennium Challenge Compact would strengthened the economy next year.
He noted: “As Ghana makes a transition to being an established middle income country international donors such as the IMF will be important partners in helping to build Ghana’s credibility with international investors and donors.
When an agreement is reached between the two partners we believe it will be an important step towards ensuring that Ghana’s positive medium and long term growth trajectory.”
He added: “But going on the country’s oil and gas prospects look good Atuabo is in its testing stage, I think the prices in cocoa are going to be better, gold is difficult to predict though…….”
Negotiations with IMF are far advanced and Ghana is expected to kick start a bailout programme with the fund next year.
Earlier, Head of the Ghana delegation negotiating with the IMF, Professor Kwesi Botchwey said that the three year program with the IMF would commence latest by February 2015 downplaying projections by rating agency Fitch that the IMF backed program will commence in April next year.
African Eye News.com
