Ghana, Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire have seen notable improvements in their fiscal economy in 2024.
According to the International Monetary Fund, fiscal consolidation efforts are helping to rebuild buffers and ensure debt sustainability.
In its April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook, the Fund said more than two-thirds of countries have consolidated their fiscal accounts in 2023, with the median primary fiscal deficit narrowing by 1.3 percentage points of Gross Domestic Product.
Ghana recorded a fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio of 7.7% in 2024. This was higher than the 3.4% recorded in 2023 but better than the 17.4% in 2020, 12.0% in 2021 and 11.8% in 2022, respectively.
In 2025, the IMF is forecasting a fiscal deficit to GDP ratio of 2.8% and 2.0% in 2026.
Meanwhile, the Fund said macroeconomic vulnerabilities are still present, albeit to different degrees, across most countries.
“In much of the region, the fight to stabilise prices is not over, public finances are not yet on a solid footing, and foreign exchange reserve buffers are often insufficient. Inflation is still in double digits in almost one-third of countries, including Angola, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, and above target in almost half of the region, particularly where monetary policy is not anchored by exchange rate pegs”.
“In more than one-third of countries, the deficit still exceeds the debt-stabilising level. Debt service capacity remains low by historical standards. In almost one-quarter of countries, interest payments exceed 20 percent of revenues, a threshold statistically associated with a high probability of fiscal stress”, it mentioned.
It revealed that one-third of countries hold reserves smaller than three months of imports; some four-fifths have reserves smaller than five months of imports.
It concluded that these reserve levels are insufficient to provide adequate buffers against future shocks.
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