[randomafrican]

Quite often the IMF is an easy scapegoat. You'd be surprised by how often the IMF advice is ignored or by how sound it can be at times.

For instance, in Ukraine a few years ago, the IMF's advice was to cut down on some structural expenses (gas subsidies mostly) and not to touch investment expenses as doing that would trigger a recession.

For political reasons IMF did the opposite.

[kaonashi]

What it usually is is political cover for local elites to betray their populations; remove barriers to capital flow and trade, gut environmental and labor protections.