The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indicated that President John Mahama led administration promised to reverse new hires of civil servants and pausing unbudgeted projects originated by policy decisions from the previous administration.

This was contained in its 4^th Review Under the Economic Credit Facility Arrangement with Ghana.

The move, including enacting a 2025 Budget consistent with a 1.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fiscal primary balance (end-March 2025) and enacting changes to the Public Financial Management and Public Procurement Acts to improve the fiscal responsibility framework, is to return the country to the path of fiscal consolidation.

The IMF also said the government’s medium-term measures included drastically curtailing the scope of payables and commitments based on the findings of the comprehensive audit; updating the centralized inventory of all ongoing and planned projects and strengthening public investment management consistent with the findings of a recent IMF Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) mission.

The Fund also stated that the new authorities assured it is fully committed to achieving the fiscal objectives under the IMF-supported programme while implementing their policy priorities.

“They intend to reach—and maintain over the next few years—primary surpluses of 1½% of GDP and raise domestic revenue significantly”, it mentioned.

Together with the ongoing debt restructuring, the Fund noted that this would underpin Ghana’s return to a moderate risk of debt distress by 2028.