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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said its preliminary discussions with the Ghanaian delegation negotiating for a new bailout has been productive. �We had a productive dialogue and made further progress on identifying economic and policy reforms that could form the basis of a possible fund-supported programme,� a statement issued by the Fund in Washington DC said. Ghana�s negotiation team was led by former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey and included the current Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper; the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Kofi Wampah. The discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff was a follow up to President Mahama�s announcement in August 2014 that the country was heading for a new IMF programme and initial discussions in Ghana started from September 16 to 25. After the October 14-16, 2014 discussions in Washington, Mr Joel Toujas-Bernate, the IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, said in a statement last Friday that; �we are also working in close collaboration with other multilateral partners, including the World Bank and the African Development Bank.� He said the discussions would continue in the coming weeks and an IMF mission was expected to visit Accra next month. Economic fundamentals Ghana�s economic fundamentals have worsened in recent times following huge budget deficit of over 15 per cent at the end of 2012 which saw the cedi depreciate sharply in the latter part of 2013 and the early part of 2014. A dollar, which used to exchange for GH�1.6 at the end of 2013, now goes for GH�3.15 as of Friday, October 17. Skepticism Before the discussions could shape up, some analysts have shot it down, citing the likelihood to worsen the hardships in the country as some of the repercussions. According to Economist and Politician, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, the government run to the IMF because it had reached its wits end in managing the economy, saying �the government has run out of ideas in solving the country�s economic challenges. �I�m saying that going there means the government we voted for has reached the limits of its ability to manage the economy. On this score, I support them going to the IMF, otherwise there will be no solution and things will get worse�. Dr Nduom, however, wants the government to keep sacred the promises it would make to the IMF to obtain a bailout package and implement it to the letter. There are also widespread fears that the IMF bailout would put a freeze on public sector wage and employment as had been the case under previous IMF support schemes, but the government had assured it would negotiate the exclusion of those clauses.