Notes of a meeting with UK executive director to the IMF Alex Gibbs in April 2012
Conditionality impacts
Conditionality
News
Egypt to agree IMF loan despite opposition
Egypt's interim government announced in February that they expect to sign a $3.2 billion loan deal with the IMF and state-media reported that negotiations are underway for a $1 billion loan from the World Bank.
Conditionality
Analysis
IMF policy recommendations
IMF policy recommendations are often criticised for being too restrictive, procyclical and paying little attention to country-specific circumstances. In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, the Fund showed some policy rethinking, bringing about expectations of change. However, Rathin Roy and Raquel A. Ramos of the UNDP Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth analyse IMF policy recommendations given to developing countries and conclude that headquarters' receptiveness to new approaches has not been trans
Accountability
News
Green light for revised PforR, but concerns remain
The World Bank board has approved the controversial new Program-for-Results (PforR) lending instrument, with some concessions to criticism.
Social services
News
World Bank loans linked to child mortality
A June 2011 academic paper that analysed health outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa found that "when a country is under a World Bank structural adjustment loan it tends to have higher levels of child mortality".
Social services
Commentary
IMF from Argentina to Greece: similar but different
The economic crisis in Argentina in 2001 and Greece today share both similarities and differences, so we should be wary of stretching the comparison.
Conditionality
News
IMF in a euromess?
The IMF responds to calls from European leaders to get more involved in the European debt crisis through greater lending to the region, however, the austerity policies being demanded are stoking further criticism from civil society organisations.
Rights
News
IFIs admit failure to put jobs at the centre
While the International Labour Organization (ILO) warns of social unrest coming from record unemployment, the IMF and World Bank are being criticised for hindering workers rights and not putting jobs at the centre of recovery.
Social services
News
IMF's focus on austerity proved "wrong, wrong, wrong", say critics
While Christine Lagarde and staff at the Fund begin to acknowledge that too much austerity is risking jobs and growth and civil society groups call for an end to IFIs policy conditions, IMF programmes continue to promote fiscal retrenchment.
Conditionality
News
Inflation "obsession" hurting Kenyan growth
Constraints placed on the Central Bank of Kenya's monetary policy by the IMF have been condemned as damaging to Kenya's growth.
Featured briefings
6 April 2022
The Bretton Woods Observer: Spring 2022
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The Bretton Woods Observer: Winter 2021
8 November 2021
IMF surveillance and climate change transition risks
New briefing by ActionAid USA and the Bretton Woods Project highlights research showing that IMF policy advice has undermined a just energy transition since the Paris Agreement was signed.