Ghana’s economic recovery has outpaced expectations under the country’s three-year IMF-supported programme, with inflation, reserves, economic growth and debt indicators showing stronger-than-projected improvements, according to the IMF Resident Representative in Ghana, Dr Adrian Alter.
Dr Alter said the performance reflected the impact of fiscal and structural reforms implemented under the programme, although he acknowledged that favourable developments in the global gold market had provided an important boost to the economy.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Monday, August 24, Dr Alter described Ghana’s recovery as “quite impressive”, noting that several key macroeconomic indicators had exceeded the IMF’s original projections.
“Ghana’s recovery has been quite impressive, faster and better than expected,” he said, adding that the country had recorded stronger-than-anticipated outcomes across its major economic indicators.
Inflation, which had risen above 50% during Ghana’s economic crisis, has now fallen below 5%, while international reserves have increased from barely one month of import cover to more than four months.
Dr Alter said the improvement in economic activity had also been significant, with real GDP growth reaching 6% in 2025 and 6.4% in the first quarter of 2026.
He stressed that the quality of the recovery was particularly encouraging because growth was no longer concentrated in a few areas but had become broad-based across the economy.
“Growth has been resilient and actually rebounded. We had 6% real growth in 2025. We had 6.4% in the first quarter of this year, and what is important is that growth is now broad-based across all sectors,” he said.
Beyond growth and inflation, the IMF representative pointed to debt restructuring and structural reforms as critical elements of Ghana’s stabilisation programme.
“Debt restructuring has been one of the key pillars, and structural reforms. Those helped a lot with macroeconomic stability,” he said.
However, Dr Alter indicated that not all of Ghana’s stronger-than-expected performance could be attributed solely to domestic policy.
The surge in international gold prices has emerged as a major external tailwind, significantly increasing export earnings and foreign exchange inflows.
According to him, gold now accounts for roughly 60% of Ghana’s total exports, making the commodity a major driver of the country’s improved external position.
“If you are only talking about the outperformance per se, you can see that gold prices are the ones that were actually much higher than expected,” he said.
The stronger gold revenues have helped Ghana accumulate reserves faster than anticipated. Dr Alter noted that the IMF programme had initially targeted three months of import cover by its conclusion, but Ghana had already reached approximately four months by the end of 2025.
The stronger external position has also supported increased foreign exchange liquidity and contributed to the appreciation of the cedi, while helping accelerate the reduction in public debt.
The IMF comments come after the Fund’s Executive Board approved the final review of Ghana’s US$3 billion Extended Credit Facility programme on July 28.
The approval unlocked a final disbursement of about US$371 million, taking total IMF disbursements under the programme to approximately US$3 billion.
The programme was launched in May 2023 following Ghana’s severe economic and financial crisis in 2022, which was characterised by high inflation, deteriorating public finances, debt distress and pressure on the cedi.
With the ECF programme now concluded, the government has opted to move into a Policy Coordination Instrument arrangement with the IMF, signalling a shift from crisis financing towards consolidating the gains achieved during the stabilisation period.
