Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, has urged all Ghanaians to maintain an unshakeable optimism toward the performance of the economy.

Mr Ofori-Atta said that if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal fails to be approved, the cost will be too huge to bear.

While acknowledging the need to engage stakeholders, the Minister explained that “we must do all we can to sustain the gains of these initiatives keeping in sight the urgency of the IMF board approval in quarter-one 2023.”

He made these comments during an update on the progress of government’s efforts to address the current economic challenges.

According to him, Parliament worked tirelessly to provide policy approval of the 2023 budget on December 6, 2022 and therefore extended his sincere gratitude to the Speaker, the leadership of parliament and all members of parliament.

He continued to urge the House to expedite the approval of the fiscal measures in the budget for next year.

“We are therefore calling on the Parliament to favourably consider the fiscal measures of the 2023 budget as they are an integral part of the package for addressing the economic challenges facing the country and will facilitate the approval of an IMF program by its board,” Ken Ofori-Atta continued.

Concerning the implementation of the debt exchange program, the Finance Minister said the government has continued extensive dialogue with stakeholders to discuss the rationale and taken their feedback.

“Ultimately, confidence and the active participation of all stakeholders are the essential elements for the success of this debt exchange program. As such government is committed to laying out a path towards attaining debt sustainability informed by sound technical analysis and broad stakeholder engagement,” the Minister said.

Toward the comprehensive participation of all stakeholders, government has also extended the expiration deadline of the debt exchange program from December 19, 2022 to December 30, 2022 to allow for key concerns raised by stakeholders to be accommodated.

Ken Ofori-Atta encouraged all Ghanaians to play their role by supporting the various interventions to kickstart Ghana’s recovery in a determined, bold and courageous way as 2023 must be the ‘comeback year’.

He concluded by wishing all Ghanaians a Merry Christmas and the best of the holiday period.