The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) are holding a two-week workshop for Financial Sector Players in the West African Sub-Region on the importance of fiscal and macro-economic management in the wake of global economic crises.

Recent developments on the global stage reflect heightened economic and policy uncertainties coupled with spillovers in the financial markets of emerging and developing economies as a result of Russia-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the opening of the Regional Course on Macro-Economic Diagnostics, Deputy Division Chief Institute for Capacity Development at IMF, Boriana Yontcheva, outlined the objectives of the workshop.

“For the next two weeks, we are going to raise the participants’ view in terms of macro-economic environment. The expected outcome is for the participants to go back to their institution of origins and share this with their colleagues in a way to see exactly how inter-relations work in their economies and the world”.

Delivering the keynote address, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison is hopeful the current economic turmoil is only temporal but will be stable once engagement with the IMF is finalised.

“The Monetary Policy Committee recognises the fact that the current condition is sub-optimal and will remain interim until agreements are reached on an IMF-supported programme. The committee is satisfied that the engagement with IMF has been positive. However, crave early conclusion of the prgramme discussions to help re-anchor stability”.

Meanwhile, Director General of WAIFEM, Dr. Baba Yusif Musa has urged the participants to take advantage of the workshop and sharpen their skills to design policies that would enable developing economies to restore price stability, while maintaining a sufficiently tight stance aligned with monetary policy.