Ghana
Receive $1.1 Billion IMF Resources
Ghana
is to receive about $1.1 billion in resources from
the International Monetary Fund, as the country
tries to reduce its widening
budget deficit.
Chief of IMF mission to Ghana, Peter Allum, said the
resources included a $600 million loan over three
years and another $452 million in IMF
special drawing rights.
The
SDR contribution comes from an agreement reached in
April among G-20 nations to boost global liquidity
through a $250 billion allocation of rights to the
IMF's 186 member countries.
Economy
Allum said Ghana's economy was generally holding up
well in the wake of the
global financial crisis, buoyed by prices for
cocoa and gold products.
He
said the IMF's $600 million loan program, under the
Poverty Reduction and
Growth Facility for low-income countries, was
designed with fiscal, inflation and international
reserve goals.
It
includes a government target to reduce the fiscal
gap to 9.4 percent of GDP this year, from a current
14-15 percent. A fiscal target of 6 percent of GDP
in 2010 will be discussed with the authorities in
September.
Reuters/Saint/Yinka