IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office has found the Fund’s 2010/2011 Troika lending to Greece, Ireland and Portugal fell short in terms of surveillance, design, implementation and decision making, and described controversial decisions as appearing “rubber-stamped”.
New IMF research has shown the positive impact of trade unions have on reducing income inequality, however, the Fund's own European austerity programmes indicate that the IMF ignores its own evidence.
Recent media articles on the IMF and the World Bank, recommended by the Bretton Woods Project
While NGO Oxfam criticised the IMF for failing to learn lessons of the past in its approach to European austerity, IMF research on inequality produced findings opposite to IMF programme demands for borrowers.
Former Portuguese finance minister, dubbed "fourth member of the Troika" appointed to head IMF fiscal affairs department.
As eurozone crisis countries, such as Ireland, complete their loan agreements with the IMF and European lenders, the IMF looks to amend rather than end its role in Europe. Meanwhile, a European parliamentary committee is examining the lending agreements and questioning their efficacy and lack of transparency.
The Bretton Woods Project review of the most important developments at the World Bank and IMF in 2013.
As global economic risks and stagnation in major economies are expected to persist, the IMF's rhetoric is increasingly anti-austerity, reflecting changing priorities in member states. However, states where IMF policy influence is greatest, spending cuts continue.
Controversy erupted in January after the IMF implied lenders to Greece may need to provide yet more debt relief, while the social and economic sustainability of other Troika (the lending triumvirate comprising the Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission) programmes is still in question.
The IMF's shift in stance regarding easing Greece's debt burden reflects a deepening controversy about whether austerity policies are counter-productive.
As European elections show the public increasingly rejecting austerity, critics call on the IMF to focus on the flaws of the eurozone rather than austerity in country programmes.
The IMF has scaled back its percentage stake in the Greek loan package but remains assertive in the eurozone, calling for more austerity raising questions over whether periphery nations will play along.
