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President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday convened a high level meeting of all Ministers, Deputy Ministers and other senior Government appointees to deliberate on a broad range of issues relating to the economy. The meeting discussed the performance of the economy over the last three quarters. The key issues touched on included the significant gains made by the Ghana Cedi against the major trading currencies and progress made so far in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a new three-year programme. The meeting agreed that ongoing measures in the form of an aggressive import substitution programme needed to be strengthened to drastically reduce the trade deficit and improve on the balance of payment position of the country over the medium to long term. On the IMF programme, the meeting was briefed on progress made so far in the negotiations with the Fund by the Government of Ghana Team. It emerged that the Fund�s views and positions on what needed to be done to inject greater robustness and stability into the macro-economy were in near-perfect alignment with government�s home grown policies. The Government of Ghana�s Negotiation Team leaves Accra tonight to continue the negotiations in Washington. Edward Kofi Omane Boamah (Dr) MINISTER