IMF Board approval for Ghana programme scheduled for January 2023 – Redd Intelligence

In its latest analysis on Ghana’s debt restructuring, the market and research firm said “the SLA  [Staff-Level Agreement] is in good shape and the end-December target looks realistic.

IMF board approval of the program is not expected until January [2023] at the earliest, after which the DSA [Debt Sustainability Analysis] parameters will become public”.

The Government of Ghana is aiming to reduce its interest payments on external debt to not more than 18% of annual revenue by 2028.

Redd Intelligence said the local debt restructuring should be viewed positively by Eurobond holders for two main reasons.

“It addresses one of the key constraints in Ghana’s Debt Sustainability Analysis – debt service – and it shows that the government is serious about achieving external debt restructuring in the first half of 2023

The exercise is expected to shrink Ghana’s extremely high 70%-100% interest-to-revenue ratio, reduce gross financing needs, and, coming before the external debt exercise, it addresses an important concern for international creditors”.

Government launched a debt exchange programme December 5, 2022.