(Bloomberg) -- Ghana expects its economic growth rate to match the International Monetary Fund’s projection this year, after the West African nation completed an overhaul of its debts.
The world’s second-largest cocoa producer revised its 2024 gross domestic product growth forecast to 3.1% from 2.8%, Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam said on Tuesday during his mid-term budget review.
“Our economic recovery is fast and strong,” he told lawmakers in the capital, Accra. “We are determined to stay the course on our fiscal consolidation program.”
Ghana recently completed a restructuring of $43 billion in debts after defaulting in December 2022.
“We are living within our means. Indeed, consistent with our programme with the IMF, we are on course to achieving a primary surplus of 0.5% of GDP by end of the year,” he said.
This is the final budget review before presidential elections on Dec. 7 in which Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the governing New Patriotic Party will face off against the main opposition candidate, John Dramani Mahama.
Other highlights:
- Non-oil real 2024 GDP growth forecast at 2.8% from initial estimate of 2.1%
- Inflation forecast for end-2024 kept at 15%
- International reserves rose to $6.9 billion at end of June, equivalent to import cover of 3.1 months
- Since the completion of the domestic debt exchange program in September, two coupon payments have been honored, with the third of 6.1 billion cedis ($395 million) to be made in August
--With assistance from Moses Mozart Dzawu.
(Adds more details, additional finance minister comment in fifth paragraph.)
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