March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Ghana, the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer, will receive $1.2 billion of interest-free loans from the World Bank over the next three years to bolster the West African nation’s economy, the multilateral lender said.

The bank will target spending on water, sanitation, energy, agriculture, transport and budget support, it said in an e- mailed statement today in the capital, Accra.

“The impact of the current global financial crisis on Ghana calls for macroeconomic measures that would ensure that the growth that Ghana has enjoyed over the past decade and more is not negatively affected,” World Bank Vice President for Africa Obiageli Ezekwesili said in the statement.

Ghana’s economy is slowing as demand for its commodities drops amid the global financial crisis. The country ranks behind neighboring Ivory Coast as the world’s biggest cocoa producer and is Africa’s second-largest gold miner, after South Africa. Last week, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor said growth would reach 5.9 percent this year, compared with 6.2 percent in 2008.

Yesterday, Ezekwesili told reporters in Accra Ghana may receive $300 million in the next few months to shore up the budget.

Kennedy Fosu, a World Bank spokesman in Accra, said the bank initially offered $250 million in budget support to Ghana, above the usual $100 million annually, to help finance its widening deficit. Duffuor aims to narrow the gap to 9.4 percent this year, from 14.9 percent last year. The government is targeting a deficit of 3 percent to 4 percent in the “medium term,” Duffuor said.

Achieving that target “is going to require very difficult policy choices,” Ezekwesili said yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emily Bowers in Accra via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 12, 2009 09:20 EDT