Ghana reaches $3 bn deal with IMF

Women sort cocoa beans at a cocoa exporter's in Abidjan, on July 3, 2019. In June key producers Ivory Coast and Ghana threatened to stop selling their production to buyers unwilling to meet a minimum price of $2,600 per tonne.
The two African nations -- which together account for 60 percent of the world's cocoa production -- want to end a situation where cocoa producers make only $6 billion in a global chocolate market worth around $100 billion. ( AFP / Sia KAMBOU)

(AFP) - Ghana has agreed on a $3 billion credit deal with the International Monetary Fund, the multilateral lender said on Tuesday, as the country battles its worst economic crisis in decades.

The West Africa state is facing more than 40 percent inflation, growing debt and a sharp decline in its cedi currency since the start of the year.

The IMF statement said Ghana's government had committed to "a wide-ranging economic reform program" that will restore stability and debt sustainability.

The three-year IMF loan agreement will be approved by the fund's board.

The crisis forced President Nana Akufo-Addo's government to reverse its position earlier this year and seek IMF help as economists warned the country risked a default on its debt payments.

The government has already announced a domestic debt swap as part of the programme to ease a crunch in payments.

A top cocoa and gold producer, Ghana also has oil and gas reserves, but its debt service payments have soared and like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa it has been hit hard by fallout from the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war.

© Agence France-Presse