BWP launches IMF surveillance scanner
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Article summary
The scanner is designed to enable civil society groups to find key themes in IMF policy and better track the political implications of its recommendations in the areas of fiscal policy, austerity, gender, tax, climate, social protection and financialisaton.
The Bretton Woods Project is pleased to announce the launch of the new Article IV explorer website: AI IMF Article IV Scanner. Using a combination of human and AI research methods the website categorises 998 of the IMF’s surveillance reports – called ‘Article IV reports’ – which are publicly available on the IMF’s website.
These reports cover a fourteen-year period from 2011 to 2025 and have been categorised by policy areas including fiscal consolidation, tax, climate, gender and social impacts, financialisation, governance and consultation. The data can be used to identify the most prevalent areas of policy advice in each report, which can also be generalised across the sample. A full methodology and discussion of the limitations of the data is available on the website.
While there is variation in the policy advice that is given, the data demonstrates that over this period a consistent policy direction has been put forward by the IMF which consists of fiscal consolidation and other austerity measures, regressive taxation and empowering the external and private sector. The data reveals that:
- 99% of Article IV reports recommended fiscal austerity
- In 96% of these cases, fiscal constraint was primarily based on reforms to the public sector, including rationalising, freezing or cutting public spending, and the wage bill of public sector workers.
- 78% of the reports focused on creating a ‘business friendly environment’ and encouraged deregulation to attract private and external sector funding, including foreign direct investment (FDI).
The IMF is currently conducting a review of surveillance. For more information and to raise any questions about the research, please don’t hesitate to contact Tara Povery at tpovey@brettonwoodsproject.org.