IMF and Ghana reach staff-level deal on $3 bln loan-programme review
Rewrites throughout
Oct 4 (Reuters) -International Monetary Fund staff and officials in Ghana have reached an agreement on their third review of the West African country's $3 billion IMF loan programme, the fund said on Friday.
The West African gold and cocoa producer is nearing completion of a debt-restructuring process under the G20's Common Framework initiative, after it defaulted on most of its $30 billion international debt in 2022.
"Ghana has made remarkable progress on its public debt restructuring," the fund said in a statement, adding that the performance of the programme was "generally satisfactory."
More than 90% of Ghana's bondholders have approved an overhaul of $13 billion worth of Eurobonds, the government said on Thursday, following a deal with bilateral creditors in June.
"The authorities are committed to pursuing good-faith efforts to reach an agreement with other commercial external creditors," the IMF said.
Once the staff-level agreement is approved by the IMF's executive board, Ghana will have access to $360 million in financing, the fund said.
The IMF board approved Ghana's current lending programme, which expires in 2026, in May of last year.
Ghana's debt restructuring is expected to reduce its debt stock by $4.7 billion and provide cash flow relief worth a total of $4.4 billion during the period of the IMF programme, the government said in June.
"Economic growth in the first half of 2024 was much higher than initially envisaged," said the IMF.
Ghana's economy grew at the fastest pace in five years in the second quarter, government data showed, and policymakers have started to lower interest rates on signs that inflation is easing.
Reporting by Alessandra Prentice and Duncan Miriri; Editing by Mark Potter and Hugh Lawson
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