The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has debunked claims of classifying Ghana as a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) based on data on its website.
This is after the flagbearer of the biggest opposition party in Ghana,National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama indicated that, the country has been taken back to HIPC under the incumbent New Patriotic Party due to what he believes is economic mismanagement.
Mr Mahama made these assertion when speaking at a Professionals Dialogue series in Accra on Monday October 26,2020.
But according to the IMF the list on its website are for all countries that have been on the HIPC program since 1996 and are regularly updated.
They further added that “this must not be interpreted as a new HIPC list, any such interpretation is flawed and may be deceptive the IMF added.”
The Fund said “We have been made aware of (social) media reports stating that Ghana has recently been added to the list of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As a result, we would like to provide the following clarifications:
The HIPC Initiative is essentially closed for countries that have already reached the Completion Point.
As you may recall, Ghana successfully reached the Completion Point in July 2004.
The list of countries that have qualified to the HIPC Initiative since inception in 1996 is regularly updated on our website and MUST NOT be interpreted as a new “HIPC list”.
Any such interpretation is flawed and may be deceptive.
Also, the recent update of Ghana’s debt-to-GDP ratio has NOT triggered any decision or action by the IMF. For ease of reference, you can access the latest issue of the Fund’s Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa on our website
We would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to seek clarification before giving credence to rumor involving the IMF in Ghana. We reserve the right to issue a public statement to make such clarifications as needed.
