Sri Lanka may need more IMF help as blasts threaten tourism
Sri Lanka faces a likely collapse in tourism following Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels, which would deal a severe blow to the island's economy and financial markets,…
Neoliberalism, IMF’s exceptional financing & recidivist behaviour of programme countries—I
Traditionally, Pakistan has been infamously called a ‘one-tranche’ country, which although is correct in the context that it has left International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes after receiving a few initial…
Porous loans
“Rags make paper/ paper makes money/ Money makes banks/ Banks make loans/ Loans make beggars/ Beggars make rags” — an 18th-century poem, when paper was made from rags, not trees.…
IMF and provincial governments
Three provincial chief ministers from three competing political parties – Punjab (PML-N), Sindh (PPP) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (PTI) — are vying with each other to deliver more to their people…
Holding the IMF to account
DESIGNED to be the international lender of last resort and help countries facing short-run balance-of-payments distress, the IMF has a rich history of being the quack physician that killed the…
IMF: reputation at stake
A new report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) disclosed that the lender has risked its reputation by extending a $7 billion bailout package to Pakistan, as any decision about…
IMF lending: tougher tasks lie ahead
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), upon securing all pre-conditions, announced this week the approval of the 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) valued at USD 7 billion. This IMF programme is…
Serious issues in IMF programmes: time for urgent reform
‘Augusto Pinochet’s coup in Chile is widely seen as inaugurating the global neoliberal era. As the 1970s progressed, neoliberal ideas and policies came increasingly to shape the agendas of international…
Economic resilience and IMF surcharges
‘Supporters of the surcharges argue that the additional fees discourage debtors from borrowing excessively from the IMF. But this moral-hazard argument ignores that loans require approval from the Fund’s Executive Board, which…
Speaking out in defence of IMF lending
Following the approval of a $7 billion funding agreement by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board, there is a certain amount of optimism that this bailout takes care of all the…
