The International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission to Ghana has ended their third review visit to the country but has raised questions about some amendments made to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) act.

The visit, which was seen by many as emergency one, was to help the staff working on Ghana‘s program to get first-hand information on progress by government, in implementing some of the critical targets under the fund program.

Some also saw it as an update to assess the implications of the recent passage of the BoG act on the strength of the program. 

A statement issued by the IMF from Washington DC and copied to JOYBUSINESS, after their visit said, discussions focused mainly on updating the macroeconomic projections.

It also looked at firming up the fiscal outlook for 2016 and ascertaining that financial pressures faced by the main State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector will not pose additional risks to the central government budget.

The staff in the statement added that understandings were reached on many of these issues. 

It, however, added that there are still some serious pressing issued “Outstanding questions remain with regards to certain elements of the legislations recently passed by Parliament and discussions will continue.”

It’s unclear for now, whether what some might call not so positive remarks by the staff mission could impact the proposed mid of September meeting of the Executive Board of the IMF on Ghana’s third review.

In the statement itself, the staff noted that views expressed on this visit would not in any way, impact or represent the Executive board, which is expected to meet on review on Ghana performance under the program.

It added that “the views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board, and this mission will not result in a Board discussion”.

The team which arrived in the country on August 29 and left, September 2, met President John Dramani Mahama, Finance Minister, Seth Terkper; Bank of Ghana Governor Dr. Abdul-Nashiri Issahaku and other senior officials.

Joel Toujas- Bernate led the staff mission