$80m FX cap was redacted from IMF reports because it was market-sensitive – Gideon Boako

Dr Gideon Boako, a Tano North MP, has explained why the $80 million monthly cap on the Bank of Ghana's foreign exchange interventions under the previous IMF programme is not explicitly stated in published IMF reports. The reason for the cap's absence from the IMF reports is that the information is market-sensitive, and therefore, it is redacted from documents presented to the IMF Board.

Boako pointed out that stating the cap in publicly available reports could trigger speculative attacks against the cedi. He clarified that the intervention cap was initially $80 million per month, but later reduced to $60 million, and that the previous government adhered to the restrictions. Boako rejected the claim that Ghana's reported $3 billion in foreign exchange sales indicated that the previous administration had exceeded the intervention ceiling.

He explained that the $3 billion figure comprises various BoG foreign exchange operations, including the FX auction and intervention budgets, and that recent IMF reports also identify an intermediation budget. Boako emphasized that the FX auction is pre-announced and rules-based, while the FX intervention is discretionary and used to smooth volatility.

He stated that adding the different windows together produces the total FX sales figure, and dividing the $3 billion by 12 months to describe the resulting average as monthly intervention is misleading. Boako's comments come amid a public debate over Dr Bawumia's assertion that the previous government was constrained by an IMF-imposed limit on its foreign exchange interventions.