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The Minority in Parliament has accused the government of manipulating economic data for political advantage, following the recent staff-level agreement reached between Ghana and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme.
If approved by the IMF Executive Board, the agreement will provide Ghana with an additional US$370 million in financial support. This follows the successful completion of the fourth review of Ghana’s three-year ECF programme, which aims to restore economic stability.
Although the IMF acknowledged progress in some areas, it also highlighted serious concerns about the programme’s performance towards the end of 2024. Key issues raised include fiscal slippages in the lead-up to elections, a rise in unpaid bills, inflation exceeding targets, and delays in key reforms.
The Minority believes these concerns support their earlier warnings that the government has been presenting misleading data to paint a false picture of Ghana’s economic situation.
Back in March, after the 2025 Budget presentation, Ranking Member on the Finance Committee and former Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, accused current Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson of twisting economic figures for political gain.
In a new statement issued on Tuesday, April 15, Dr. Adam reinforced his concerns, pointing out clear differences between the figures provided by the government and those published by the IMF.
“Whilst the Minister for Finance in the 2025 Budget announced the primary fiscal deficit on commitment basis (the fiscal anchor of the IMF programme) to be 3.9% of GDP, the IMF found it to be 3.25%, a difference of about 0.7% of GDP,” Dr. Adam explained.
He also criticised the IMF for changing its own standards in measuring Ghana’s fiscal performance, straying from what was agreed upon in the Technical Memorandum of Understanding.
“The IMF itself departed from their own definition of the primary fiscal balance as defined in the Technical Memorandum of Understanding reached at the beginning of the program,” he said.
“By allowing multi-year payables to feature in the determination of the primary fiscal balance as if they occurred in 2024, the Fund Ghana Mission has effectively assessed the fiscal balance on metrics that vary from all the previous reviews conducted on programme implementation.”
Despite these concerns, Dr. Adam expressed hope that the IMF Executive Board would carry out a fair and transparent review of Ghana’s fiscal progress.
“We are confident that the Executive Board of IMF will review the fiscal performance with integrity and ensure that our economy is devoid of data manipulation to restore confidence in the fiscal data of the country,” he concluded.
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