No Longer Poor: Ghana’s New Income Status and Implications of Graduation from IDA - Working Paper 300

Ghana’s largest and most important creditor for the past three decades has been the InternationalDevelopment Association (IDA), the soft loan window of the World Bank. That will soon cometo an end. The combination of Ghana’s rapid economic growth and the recent GDP rebasingexercise means that Ghana suddenly finds itself above the income limit for IDA eligibility. Formalgraduation is imminent and comes with significant implications for access to concessional finance,debt, and relations with other creditors.

This paper considers the specific questions related toGhana’s relationship with the World Bank, as well as the broader questions about the country’s newmiddle-income status.