The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised Ghana’s growth rate for 2024 to 4 percent from 3 percent. 

The Director of the African Department, Abebe Aemro Selassie disclosed this in a response to a question by JOYBUSINESS during the launch of the Regional Economic Outlook report in Washington DC USA on the sidelines of the IMF/ World Bank Meetings.

Mr. Abebe noted that the 3 percent projection as captured in the World Economic Outlook was based on mid April 2024 data and did not factor recent developments in Ghana.

“With the Press you understand deadlines, and when we were putting together World Economic Outlook report our deadline was the  middle of April  2024, that is why we had the  3 percent projection” he explained.

“The IMF team went to Accra for the third review and as it was the case, we are now projecting close to 4 percent growth rate for Ghana”, he added.

Mr. Selassie argued that if the World Economic Outlook was put together in middle of October 2024, the growth projection will not be 3 percent.

Background

The IMF in its World Economic Report launched on October 23, 2024 did project that Ghana will end 2024 with a growth rate of 3%. The projection did align with Government of Ghana’s forecast of a 3.1% GDP growth rate as stated in the 2024 Budget.

A senior official at the IMF had earlier told JOYBUSINESS that the growth figure will be revised before the end of the year.

IMF and World Bank on Ghana’s growth outlook

Based on the latest projection, the IMF and World Bank are upbeat about Ghana’s economy.

The World Bank, in its Africa Pulse Report released earlier this month, projected that Ghana’s growth rate could reach 4% by the end of 2024. This is attributed to a surge in economic activity during the last two quarters of the year.

IMF on stabilizing Ghana’s Economy

Mr. Abebe noted that the growth numbers that “we are seeing shows that the reforms are working and bearing fruit”.

He, however noted that the threats still persist going forward.

 “That is why we must strike the balance of ensuring fiscal prudence and debt sustainability. We must also avoid the traps of spending overruns in an election year. These are some of the things that we need to undertake to ensure that Ghana has a healthy economy” Mr. Selassie.