The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Ghana has made impressive progress toward macroeconomic stabilisation and debt sustainability under the Economic Credit Facility (ECF)-supported programme.
According to the Fund, the ECF arrangement, approved in May 2023, has helped ease acute financing pressures and restore stability through significant fiscal consolidation, monetary policy credibility, reserve accumulation, and comprehensive debt restructurings.
Between end-2022 and end-2025, inflation declined from a peak of 54.1% to 5.4%; gross international reserves (GIR) rose eightfold, and the primary fiscal balance swung from a deficit of 4.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022 to a surplus of 2.1% in 2025, the Fund said in its 2026 Article IV Consultation on Ghana.
“Historically high gold prices supported reserve accumulation and exchange rate stability. Against this backdrop, the implementation of the 2023 Article IV consultation recommendations has been broadly satisfactory”, it pointed out.
Vulnerabilities Remain
Despite this progress, the Fund said significant vulnerabilities remain. “Policy credibility is not yet fully entrenched and remains vulnerable to reform fatigue and political‑economy pressures”.
It argued that the fiscal consolidation has relied heavily on spending compression, raising concerns over its sustainability, given Ghana’s large development needs, and emerging security pressures.
Consequently, the Bretton Woods institution explained that the financial-sector vulnerabilities persist, including elevated non-performing loans (NPLs), especially among state-owned banks and some private institutions.
It added that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) suffered losses of 1.5% of GDP related to its Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), noting further that several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) also continue to pose large fiscal risks (see Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA)), underscoring persistent weaknesses in oversight and operational performance.
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