Speaking during a virtual engage­ment with the country’s external creditors on the macroeconomic update on the economy on Thurs­day from Washington DC, mon­itored by the Ghanaian Times, he assured that government had not planned to carry out any second round of DDEP programme on pension funds.

His assurance was in reaction to media reports that the Ministry of Finance had assured Eurobond investors of another round of DDEP.

Mr Ofori-Atta said his statement was taken out of context when he provided explanation to the external creditors, saying it was a “misunderstanding.”

“We’re not planning a second round of the DDEP with pension funds. I think it was a misunder­standing,” the Finance Minister stated.

He said in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Organised Labour Associations on December 22, 2022, pension funds were exempted from the DDEP and that had not changed.

“Therefore, it is not correct to state that there will be second round of DDEP with Pension Funds. What we are doing is work­ing with them on how they can further help government to reduce the debt servicing and ensure we maintain sort of the debt sustain­ability in the MoU agreement and so such discussions are continu­ing,” Mr Ofori-Atta stated.

The Finance Minister said per the MoU, the government and Organised Labour agreed that they would work together to explore mutually beneficial options with debt sustainability limits and to also promote macroeconomic stability and economic recovery in the spirit of social partnership.

Earlier in the engagement with the external creditors, Mr Ofori-Atta appealed to them to support the country’s debt restruc­turing exercise to help Ghana on the back of debt sustainability.

He said the objective of govern­ment was to bring Debt to Gross Domestic Ratio to 55 per cent in 2028 from the current figure esti­mated at more than 85 per cent.

Mr Ofori-Atta explained that the government resorted to an Interna­tional Monetary Fund Programme in July last year for balance of payment support of $3 billion fol­lowing debt sustainability analysis which showed that the country’s level of debt was unsustainable.

The Finance Minister said the government reached a Staff Level Agreement with the IMF in record time on December 12, 2022.

Mr Ofori-Atta said the govern­ment had already implemented some measures to increase revenue and rein in the growing expendi­ture including the hike in electricity and water tariffs and a compre­hensive set of structural reforms, notably public expenditure review and monetary policy tightening.

The Finance Minister told the external creditors that government had completed the restructuring of the country’s domestic debt to bring some financial relief to government and the outstanding issues of three revenue bills had been passed into law to raise about GH¢4 billion into the national kitty.