Between the consensus reached by attendees at last week's  National Economic Forum and an assessment of the Ghanaian economy by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also concluded last week, government has now been given a road map for bringing the national economy out of the woods.

While the two assessments cover different ground -- the Forum has focused primarily on the medium term by way of the strategic and structural frameworks for managing the economy while the IMF has emphasised the shorter term fiscal and monetary corrections required -- there are major points of convergence.

Key immediate policy measures both assessments agree on are the need to review the restrictive foreign exchange regulations introduced early this year by the Bank of Ghana and the need to set limits on the central bank's net credit to government in any given year.

Both assessments also agree on the need to improve tax adminstration to improve revenue mobilisation.

A longer term issue flagged by both assessments is the need to restructure the statutory funds such as the District Assemblies Common Fund[DACF], National Health Insurance Authority [NHIA] and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GetFund).

The embattled National Economic Forum ended last Thursday with government endorsing its outcome and promising its readiness to implement the decisions taken in President Mahama’s own words, he said his economic team had been “invigorated” by the passionate discussions at the Forum and further described the recommendations as “breath-taking and very far reaching.”

Having admitted that the forum had inspired government to quicken its steps in achieving goals set, the President remarked “We are committed to taking the next steps.

He pointed out that some of the issues raised at the forum are al-ready being dealt with by the government such as the energy crisis, broadening of the tax base and the Bank of Ghana’s measures to ar-rest the fall of cedi.

Meanwhile the Finance Ministry has indicated that it will be coordinating with other agencies to implement all the recommendations of the Economic Forum.

Obviously incensed by ongoing debate about the political will to implement the recommendations, the sector Ministry has declared that time spent at Senchi will not go to waste

Deputy Minister for Finance, Cassel Ato Forson has said that “we have already started working around it, the implementation committee has been formed, the implementation committee will start work, they will ensure that we at the ministries, departments and agencies implement the consensus agreed at Senchi and we will do it.”

The 22- point consensus stipulates among others that the State should encourage and promote indigenous entrepreneurship and continue to execute projects and programmes commenced by the previous administration.

It further touches on fiscal discipline and calls for the strengthen-ing of the public accounts and finance committees of Parliament to play their oversight responsibilities more effectively.

It recommends a mechanism for effective synergy and coordination between the Monitoring Units of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the Office of the President.

While experts were busy brainstorming on solutions to the economic challenges at Senchi, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published the results of consultations between its directors and the government of Ghana.

Dubbed “Article IV consultation with Ghana,” the IMF expressed concern over what it calls “the emergence of significant short-term vulnerabilities,” stemming from high fiscal and external current ac-count deficits.

The Fund emphasized that the imbalances make the country vulnerable to a deterioration of external conditions and are creating pressure on interest rates and the exchange rate.

It warned: “If unaddressed, they risk weakening economic growth and public debt sustainability.”

The Directors emphasized that macroeconomic stability will need to be restored to preserve a positive medium-term outlook.

Beyond that, they are urging authorities to take additional short-term measures to reduce the fiscal and external imbalances.

They demand that government translates its policy commitments quickly into specific and time-bound action plans to achieve significant and durable consolidation.

“In light of current imbalances, we recommend a more ambitious medium-term consolidation path to stabilize public debt and debt service at sustainable levels,” the fund stated.

While the risk of debt distress remains moderate, the IMF ex-pressed concerns about the high debt service-to-revenue ratio.

On monetary policy the Fund suggested that further tightening may be needed, in combination with fiscal consolidation, to steer inflation back into the target range.

Directors stressed that the Bank of Ghana should limit its net credit .to the government, strengthen liquidity management and the inflation forecasting framework, and continue to allow the exchange rate to adjust to prevent further erosion of the reserve buffer.

They emphasized that the new foreign exchange regulations will not be effective unless the underlying macroeconomic imbalances are resolved.

Not all of this will go down well with Ghanaians though. The cedi’s depreciation is particularly a sore point and analysts are already at a loss as how to reconcile the IMF’s advice to tighten monetary policy to suppress inflation with its advice to let the cedi fall further, a move which would further exacerbate inflation.

Ultimately though, government is acutely aware that fiscal tightening through spending cut backs are direly needed, a point emphasised by the IMF but much less so by the National Economic Forum’s communiqué.

No amount of deliberations and consultations can replace their bitter pill which Ghana's government and citizenry will eventually have to swallow.