Business News of Thursday, 30 June 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-06-30IMF does not impose restrictions, only structural changes – Dr. Peprah
Dr. Williams Peprah is a financial analyst
Ghana needs an IMF bailout, Dr. Peprah
IMF facilitates international trade, Finance expert
IMF will impose conditions that hurt the poor, Gabby
An Associate Professor of Finance at Andrews University in the United States, Dr. Williams Kwasi Peprah, has indicated that concerns raised about the International Monetary Fund and the government’s reason for not wanting an IMF
Read full articleprogram are not entirely true.
A leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Gabby Otchere-Darko, earlier noted that an IMF program may end up imposing some restrictions on the country.
“I am not for an IMF program 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 program that pretends it is all our doing is doomed to fail.”
But Dr. Peprah believes “IMF does not impose restrictions. What they focus on is structural changes and in that, some may affect government policies.”
He, however, added that an IMF bailout may help Ghana’s exports and deal with the trade deficit that the country currently faces.
“Normally, the IMF’s main aim is to ensure that international trade does not go into challenges. If you notice, the other side of the world is into manufacturing and they sell their goods in Africa. So, Africa must have the money to pay for them. That’s why they asked governments to keep all the reserves so that they will be able to pay their bills [foreign] when they are due.”
“The second point is that the Fund facilitates international trade. So that is the reason why they provide lending to governments when they see that an impact on a country’s position will affect the other parts of the world. They do that to ensure that every country’s balance of payments is ok”, he explained.
“You will see another point when they are talking of balance of payments so that the international trade will not be distorted”, he added.
SSD/FNOQ
