The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said contrary to some speculation that the country may eventually turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic support, the Finance Minister has not indicated that Ghana needs to go to the IMF for support.

According to him, Ken Ofori-Atta had indicated clearly that there are homegrown measures that can help move the country out of the current economic challenges.

He explained that any other decision will only be taken after analysis of the latest data on the economy is completed.

“The person responsible for fiscal policy in this country has been quite clear that he believes that there are clear domestic measures that can answer the same questions for us. I take him at his word.

“We are additionally going through a process of assessment of the data, you have to come to Parliament with the fiscal outcome for the first half of the year or maybe ending of the first quarter and tell us consequently what the fiscal programme for the rest of the year is.

“I am sure when he does gets to that time he will provide us with all the data and the justification for whatever decisions that he is urging on the Republic,” he said in an interview on JoyNews.

He noted that despite the suggestions for the country to return to the IMF, the country must be guided to take a decision after government presents its fiscal outcomes for the first half of the year.

“Let them come up [with suggestions to return to IMF] but let us be guided by the hard data when it gets to the middle of July and we are having to put that data out then we take a decision,” he noted.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah also responded to suggestions that the E-levy which was expected to rake in some revenue for the government is under-performing a month after its implementation.

“The data is coming in, we are going through the assessment period. Like I said it is a bit prejudicial now to try and explain what is suspected to have happened when we are actually now going through the assessment of the data so I think we should give ourselves time to see the data, do the analyses and then we can come up with the consequential decisions,” he stated.

Meanwhile, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has said he is not against the government seeking economic support from the IMF.

According to him, any move or plan by the government to go to the IMF for a programme would be a matter of principle.

“Am I against an IMF programme in principle? No. I am not for an IMF programme that throws peanuts at us but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more.

“Covid-19 and War in Ukraine are not of Africa’s doing, but more to our doom. A programme that pretends it is all our doing is doomed to fail,” he tweeted on Monday, June 27.