IMF 'optimistic' Ghana will reach official creditor debt deal soon

The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it was "optimistic" that Ghana and its official bilateral creditors would reach a debt restructuring deal soon, paving the way for another $600 million IMF loan payment to the country.

Discussions between Ghanaian authorities and the Official Creditor Committee, co-chaired by China and France, are showing "promising progress", the IMF's Resident Representative for Ghana, Leandro Medina, said.

"We are optimistic that an agreement will be reached soon, allowing to swiftly present the first ECF (Extended Credit Facility) programme review to our Executive Board," he said via email.

The West African nation defaulted on most of its external debt in December 2022 and needs to secure restructuring deals with official creditors, international bondholders and other commercial lenders, to successfully implement the IMF loan deal and emerge from its worst economic crisis in a generation.

Ghana's sovereign international dollar bonds rose on Tuesday, after a report that its government expected to receive soon a draft term sheet from its official creditors to restructure $4.5 billion of debt.

The draft term sheet would pave the way for the IMF Executive Board to approve the disbursement of $600 million under its $3 billion bailout programme, Ghana's Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta told Bloomberg News.

Ghana's international bonds rose by up to 1.1 cent on the dollar, with the May 2029 maturity rising the most to 42.67 cents, according to Tradeweb data.

Ghana's official creditors were due to meet on Monday to discuss restructuring terms, Reuters reported exclusively last week.

Article and image originally appeared on Reuters