2016 will be tough for Ghana under IMF policy - Christine Lagarde

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, (IMF), Christine Lagarde has indicated that 2016 would be a tough year for Ghana under the bailout programme as the country prepare for its 2016 general elections.

She made this known in an online press briefing Wednesday. She said election years are difficult years for any country under a programme because they struggle to meet targets set for them.

She added that 2016 is, however, likely to be a neutral year because a lot of fiscal adjustment have been frontloaded in 2015.

If there will be tough measures at all, they will happen this year, she said.

“Whether it’s Ghana or any other country in the world, election years are always difficult for countries under program because they are targets, because there are sometimes hard decisions to be made. Election years are not very conducive to those decisions, which is why for the Ghana’s situation a lot of the fiscal adjustment was frontloaded in 2015.”

“So many of the hard decisions have already been taken, which should hopefully make 2016 not a neutral year, but a year when the hard decisions are at a lower level," she added.

I’m very hopeful that Ghana continues to deliver and continues to restore the economic stability that it had and is sensible about its borrowing capacity,” she stated.