Ghana's economy has recovered strongly since 2009 and is expected to grow by more than 13 per cent in 2011, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated. The expected economic growth would be boosted by the commercial production of oil, as well as strong activity in other sectors of the economy. According to a statement issued by the IMF in Washington D.C. last Friday, a preliminary assessment of the fiscal performance of Ghana's economy by a team from the fund led by Christian Daseking who visited Ghana during the last week of August 2011, indicated that the first half of the year showed strong improvements in tax revenues over the same period in 2010. During the visit, discussions with Ghanaian authorities focused on recent economic policy performance and challenges for 2012. The team also met with President John Evans Atta Mills, Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, and other senior officials, as well as representatives from civil society and the private sector. Discussions with the Bank of Ghana focused on the challenges of maintaining low inflation in the context of sizeable foreign currency inflows. The team encouraged the central bank to further build up its foreign reserve buffer, while carefully managing the impact on domestic liquidity and allowing some adjustments in the exchange rate in response to market forces. According to the statement, the team's assessment also suggested that full-year fiscal targets were achievable with continued control over expenditures and that the government had also cleared a sizeable part of its previous arrears, which had contributed to high non-performing loans in the banking sector. Inflation, the statement said, was now firmly in single digit while the cedi had remained broadly stable against the dollar, underpinned by an improved external position. To avoid a re-emergence of arrears, the IMF recommended that it would be important for the government and the managers of the economy to continue to strengthen 'Public expenditure management systems, ensure that energy and other regulated prices were set at cost-recovery levels, and keep the overall spending envelop at a sustainable level. "Prospects of a major scaling up of infrastructure investment will place an even higher premium on expenditure restraint in other areas. A large financing package has been secured on non-concessional terms, and it is important to assess carefully the cost and benefits of the financial arrangement and underlying projects," the statement said. "Going forward, close co-ordination between fiscal and monetary policy will remain important to avoid a re-emergence of high inflation and associated erosion of real incomes, which particularly harms the poor," the statement added. The IMF staff, according to the statement, has offered to work closely with the Government of Ghana on ‘assessing the impact of projects on macro-economics and the sustainability of public debt. That assessment, it said, would also hinge on the government's policy commitments in other areas both in the 2012 budget and in the medium term. An IMF team is expected to return to Ghana in the fall of 2011 to conduct discussions for the fifth review of Ghana's IMF support programme under the extended deficit facility.