The Minority in Parliament is raising red flags over what it describes as data manipulation by the government following the announcement of a new staff-level agreement between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ghana.
According to the Minority, discrepancies in fiscal figures presented by the Finance Ministry and those assessed by the IMF suggest deliberate efforts to misrepresent the country's economic performance for political gain. "Whilst the Minister for Finance in the 2025 Budget announced the primary fiscal deficit on commitment basis (the fiscal anchor of the IMF programme) to be 3.9% of GDP, the IMF found it to be 3.25%, a difference of about 0.7% of GDP," the Minority pointed out in a statement.
They also accused the IMF of shifting the goalposts in its analysis, stating, "The IMF itself departed from their own definition of the primary fiscal balance as defined in the Technical Memorandum of Understanding reached at the beginning of the program." The concern, according to the Minority, lies in the treatment of multi-year payables. "By allowing multi-year payables to feature in the determination of the primary fiscal balance as if they occurred in 2024, the Fund Ghana Mission has effectively assessed the fiscal balance on metrics that vary from all the previous reviews conducted on programme implementation." Despite this, they expressed hope that the final decision by the IMF's Executive Board will be grounded in transparency. "We are confident that the Executive Board of IMF will review the fiscal performance with integrity and ensure that our economy is devoid of data manipulation to restore confidence in the fiscal data of the country," the statement read.
The IMF, while acknowledging some progress under the Extended Credit Facility programme, highlighted a sharp decline in performance toward the end of 2024.
