President Akufo-Addo says the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout was one of the most difficult choices he had to make to save the economy.

He cited the rising cost of crude oil on the international market as one of the factors that compounded the country’s economic woes, and one of the reasons government ran to the IMF for support.

Despite being a tough choice to make, Akufo-Addo says it was in the interest of the country and the economy to go to the Fund.

“You can imagine the difficulties that there were for the Bank of Ghana. So instead of now finding 64 dollars for each barrel of oil, the Bank of Ghana was now having to find 100 plus [dollars] and it stayed like that. In fact, it is only very recently that the price of crude oil has come down.

“I am just using this one very important fact to tell you what drove the government to this very difficult decision of going to the IMF. I don’t have any difficulty in admitting that it was a difficult decision for me to take but I felt that in the interest of the country, in the interest of our economy, we had to make that decision,” he said in an interview on Kumasi-based OTEC FM.

Things are not easy for the Akufo-Addo-led government.

Amid a free-falling cedi, a rising cost of living, and skyrocketing fuel prices, the government is at the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent a full-blown economic turmoil.

Meanwhile, the Minority on Parliament’s Finance Committee has cast doubts over government’s chances of closing a deal with the IMF by end of year.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta had indicated that government was working hard to get a deal by November this year.

But speaking to Joy Business' George Wiafe in Washington DC at the just ended Annual IMF/World Bank meeting, Ranking Member on the Committee, Dr Ato Forson said Ghana can only secure a deal with the IMF by the first quarter of 2023.