Accra: Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has announced what he described as a 'new chapter' in Ghana's relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), declaring that the country has made substantial progress in restoring macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability ahead of schedule.
According to Ghana Web, Dr. Forson delivered a statement in Parliament on Thursday, May 28, 2026, indicating that Ghana is transitioning from 'crisis management to stability' and moving from dependence on financial bailouts to a reform-driven partnership with the IMF under President John Mahama's Reset Agenda. He emphasized the significance of this transition as a pivotal moment in Ghana's economic journey, marking a shift from uncertainty to renewed confidence in the nation's economic future.
The statement is one of the clearest official declarations yet from the Mahama administration that Ghana's economy is emerging from the severe turbulence that led to the country's debt default and IMF bailout under the previous administration.
Dr. Forson recounted the scale of the economic crisis that began in 2022, describing it as 'profound, if not traumatic.' He criticized the previous NPP administration for seeking IMF assistance on July 1, 2022, due to what he called 'gross mismanagement' of the economy, which led to fiscal, balance of payments, and debt crises. The Finance Minister recalled the intense pressure on the cedi, surging inflation, weakened external reserves, and deteriorating investor confidence that caused Ghana to lose access to the international capital market.
The Finance Minister also highlighted the series of sovereign credit rating downgrades that hit Ghana in 2022, with Moody's, S and P, and Fitch all lowering the country's credit ratings, pushing it into deep junk territory. He noted that Ghana's Eurobond spreads widened to an unprecedented 3,400 basis points in October 2022, effectively shutting the country out of international capital markets, which further deepened the economic and financial crisis.
Dr. Forson painted a grim picture of the ripple effects of the crisis across the financial sector and the wider economy. COCOBOD was unable to secure its syndicated loan facility, and local commercial banks struggled to obtain external funding. The Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) introduced in December 2022 imposed significant haircuts across the financial sector, affecting a wide range of stakeholders, including the Bank of Ghana, commercial banks, pension funds, insurance companies, non-bank financial institutions, individual bondholders, and pensioners.
He further reminded Parliament that Ghana formally requested debt treatment under the G20 Common Framework in December 2022 to restructure more than US$5 billion in bilateral debt before later defaulting on external commercial debt obligations. Dr. Forson argued that ordinary citizens bore the heaviest burden during the crisis period, facing rapid cedi depreciation, inflation exceeding 50 percent, erosion of incomes and savings, painful bondholder haircuts, soaring interest rates, and worsening poverty.