Ghana is looking to institute a number of austerity measures next year, including increasing taxes and cutting down on government spending, in order to cut its growing fiscal deficit, the finance minister said on Wednesday during a budget reading in parliament.

Market pundits however took the step by the west Africa government as efforts to secure up to $1 billion in soft loans from the international monetary fund (IMF).

Financial Times quoted Finance Minister Seth Terkper saying that the government was keen to reduce its fiscal deficit from the current 9.4 percent to 6.5 percent in 2015.

“[The] government is committed to addressing the short-term vulnerabilities that the economy faces,” Terkper told lawmakers presenting next year’s budget.

Reuters reported that Ghana’s cedi currency had fallen more than 30 percent against the dollar this year and Standard & Poor’s cut the country’s rating last month, expressing doubts about the government’s ability to reduce the deficit.

The fiscal problems hurt ordinary people and play into the hands of the opposition New Patriotic Party ahead of elections in 2016 at which President John Mahama is set to stand.

Ghana, like Zambia, is in talks with the IMF for financial aid after accumulating large debts over the last five years, in part due to sharp increases in public wages. The West African nation is discussing a three-year programme with the IMF for between $800m and $1bn in support that could be concluded in early 2015, Treasury officials Told Financial Times.

Terkper said economic growth would slow down next year to 3.9 per cent, the slowest in two decades and sharply down from 6.9 per cent in 2014. Ghana’s commodity based economy is dependent largely on three commodities: cocoa, of which it is the world’s second largest producer after Ivory Coast, gold and oil.

“The 3.9 percent (GDP) projection for 2015 is disappointing, especially when you weigh this against the fact that this administration inherited an economy growing at around 8 percent,” NPP finance spokesman Kweku Kwarteng told Reuters.

Ghana has for a while been the  epitom of the ‘Africa rising’ narrative due to its strong economic growth, on the back of high commodities prices in recent years and Chinese-led investment, and improved governance.

It was among the first sub-Saharan Africa country, together with South Africa and Seychelles, to tap the sovereign bond market, raising $750 million through a 10-year bond in 2007.