One year of IMF’s prescription: The bumps and bruises

A year ago, Ghana began a programme, a three-year Extended Credit Facility of US$918 million, with the International Monetary Fund. 

The programme's key aims were to restore macroeconomic stability, debt sustainability and ensure economic growth, while protecting social spending.

A year on, while some, including senior officials of the IMF, think the country can point to some positives, others also believe that not much can be shown for all the bitter austere measures. 

One of the criticisms is that the inability to slow down inflation and the government's borrowing costs, as previous IMF programmes did in a relatively short time, is a particular weakness of this programme and appears to be derailing its objectives. 

Indeed, since the start of the IMF programme, inflation has risen from 16.6 per cent to a current rate of 19.2 per cent, defying forecasts of a reduction under tight monetary conditions. 

The high yields on the 2015 Eurobond and o