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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on government to impress upon the Bank of Ghana�s Monetary Policy Committee to raise its policy rate further so as to manage liquidity tightly while restoring foreign exchange reserves to more comfortable levels. The move is likely to increase interest rates of banks and the ordinary Ghanaian would suffer the consequences in a number of ways if the country�s authorities comply with the directive. The prescription followed the recent approval of $178.74 million by the IMF�s Executive Board to Ghana after the country completed its sixth and seventh reviews under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement for the country. Naoyuki Shinohara, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, issued a statement to confirm the board�s approval. �Ghana�s economic performance was strong last year and medium-term growth prospects remain favorable, but short-term risks to macroeconomic stability have risen. A rapid depreciation of the cedi is fuelling inflation and reserve cover has fallen below comfortable levels. Furthermore, spending overruns at the end of 2011, large public wage increases, and re-emergence of energy subsidies have created the need for corrective actions to achieve fiscal targets. �The authorities� 2012 economic program focuses appropriately on measures to preserve hard-won stabilization gains. On the fiscal side, this implies greater revenue mobilization and expenditure restraint. In particular, savings identified by the pension and payroll audits must be realized and spending pressures in the run up to elections need to be resisted,� he highlighted. The deputy managing director added that the country�s authorities will need to accelerate their efforts to complete the fiscal reform agenda. And priority areas include tax administration and public financial management. Given Ghana�s increasing reliance on non-concessional financing, it is critical to develop a robust and transparent framework for public investment prioritization and debt management. Total disbursements, under the arrangement, stand at SDR 387.45 million (about US$581.28 million). The Executive Board additionally approved government�s request for an extension of the programme by about two weeks until July 31, 2012 to make the final disbursement. Ghana�s current three-year ECF arrangement was approved on July 15, 2009.