Ghana's annual consumer inflation accelerated to a new 21-year high of 50.3% in November, up from 40.4% the previous month, driven by utilities, food and fuel, data showed on Wednesday.
Government spending cuts and several central bank interest rate hikes have so far failed to tame inflation.
Once applauded as a rock of economic stability and security in a region plagued by coups and jihadist wars, Ghana has steadily lost investor confidence.
Like much of the continent, Ghana slowly emerged from the pandemic only to face the fallout of the war in Ukraine and the surge in fuel and food costs.
Facing a crunch in payments, President Nana Akufo-Addo this year reversed course from his "Ghana Beyond Aid" concept and entered talks with the IMF for a bailout.
A major part of the IMF agreement is bringing the country back to debt sustainability through a restructuring, calling on investors to exchange bonds for new ones maturing later.
IMF approval of the $3 billion loan will depend on its success. Officials say they have the means to help offset any impact on local banks or pension funds -- major holders of domestic bonds.
Already, the government has announced a 2.5 percent increase in VAT and a freeze on public worker hires to help cut costs and hike revenues. A debt restructuring is underway.
Since the start of the year, its cedi currency has lost half its value, which has helped increase its debt burden by $6 billion, with warnings Ghana risked a default.
But Ghana's major labor movement, the Trades Union Congress, is already rumbling over the deal's potential impact on workers' pensions.
Opposition National Democratic Congress has been quick to blame Akufo-Addo's government for ballooning debt, even trying and failing to censure the finance minister.
"No matter how the IMF program turns out and how they can turn the corner, the records will show that they took us to 40 percent inflation, the records will show the market was closed to us, the markets will show the cedi depreciated 54 percent," said NDC lawmaker Isaac Adongo.
Akufo-Addo's government spent heavily on social programs such as free high schools. But his ruling New Patriotic Party says the crisis is all about external shocks -- Covid and Russia's war in Ukraine.
Testifying before parliament last month, Ofori-Atta apologized to Ghanaians for their pain, but officials dismissed NDC charges of mismanagement.
"Assuming Covid didn't happen, what would our story be?" NPP communications director Richard Ahiagbah told AFP.
This report was prepared with data from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
