No Escaping EFF

No Escaping EFF THE obviously orchestrated reports On the government's intentions with regard to further borrowing from the IMF have sought to suggest that difficulties have arisen because its ability to satisfy the quantitative performance criteria and the policy benchmarks prescribed by the multilateral agencies is wearing thin, particularly against the background of the fragile sociopolitical situation in the country. Earlier indications were that the government would go in for additional borrowings under the IMF's extended fund facility (EFF) in combination with the enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF). There was an explicit commitment to that effect in the government's memorandum of economic policies for 1992-93 submitted to the IMF in early June 1992 as part of the requirement for the current stand-by arrangement. But more recently the government has been trying to convey the impression, through inspired reports in the press, that it would seek assistance from the IMF via some alternative route, not the EFF/ESAF one.