Abstract
In the worldwide economic and debt crisis of the eighties the International Monetary Fund increasingly became the “lender of last resort” for a great many Third World countries. With world trade weak and interest rates high, a considerable number of developing countries got into serious balance-of-payments difficulties. The demand for stand-by and extended arrangements with the Fund rose dramatically. The conditions or adjustment programmes linked to this lending not infrequently led to serious social and political tensions in the countries concerned. The term “IMF riots” was coined, and the conditionality of credit again became the subject of political and academic debate.
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References
Cf. John Williamson: The Lending Policies of the International Monetary Fund, Institute for International Economics, Washington 1982, p. 11.
see for example Joseph Gold: Conditionality, IMF Pamphlet Series, No, 31, Washington 1979.
Cf. Sydney Dell: Stabilization: The Political Economy of Overkill, in: John Williamson (ed.): IMF Conditionality, Washington 1983, pp. 17 ff.
Cf. Manuel Guitián: Fund Conditionality and the International Adjustment Process: The Early Period, 1950–70, in: Finance and Development, No. 4, December 1980, p. 25.
Cf. also Sydney Dell, op. cit., Sydney Dell: Stabilization: The Political Economy of Overkill, in: John Williamson (ed.): IMF Conditionality, Washington 1983, p. 27.
Edward M. Bernstein: Principles of Bretton Woods Conference Seen as Relevant to Current Problems, in: IMF Survey, 19th October 1984, p. 331.
Executive Board Decision, 2nd March 1979, entitled: Use of Fund’s General Resources and Stand-by Arrangements, para. 4, reproduced inter alia in Joseph Gold, op. cit. Conditionality, IMF Pamphlet Series, No. 31, Washington 1979. p. 22.
Tony Killick, Graham Bird, Jennifer Sharpley and Mary Sutton: IMF Policies in Developing Countries: the Case for Change, in: The Banker, Vol. 134, No. 698, 1984, p. 36.
Cf. for example Sydney Dell, op. cit.: Stabilization: The Political Economy of Overkill, in: John Williamson (ed.): IMF Conditionality, Washington 1983. pp. 17 ff.
Cf. William B. Dale: Financing and Adjustment of Payments Imbalances, in: John Williamson (ed.), op. cit.: The Lending Policies of the International Monetary Fund, Institute for International Economics, Washington 1982, p. 14.
Cf. for example Thomas A. Connors: The Apparent Effecis of Recent IMF Stabilisation Programs, International Finance Discussion Papers, No, 135, April 1979, and the comments on this subject in Tony Killick et al., op. cit. Tony Killick, Graham Bird, Jennifer Sharpley and Mary Sutton: IMF Policies in Developing Countries: the Case for Change, in: The Banker, Vol. 134, No. 698, 1984, p. 36.
Cf. Sydney Dell, op. cit.: Stabilization: The Political Economy of Overkill, in: John Williamson (ed.): IMF Conditionality, Washington 1983, pp. 37 f.
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Cf. Handelsblatt, No. 61 of 27th March 1985, p. 12.
Vaubel sees this view of “moral hazard” applying to all Fund lending; of. Roland Vaubel, op. cit. Roland Vaubel: The Moral Hazard of IMF Lending, in: The World Economy, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1983, p. 294.
For details, see A. W. Hooke: The International Monetary Fund: its Evolution, Organization, and Activities, IMF Pamphlet Series, No. 37, Third Edition, Washington 1983, pp. 33 f.
Roland Vaubel, op. cit.: The Moral Hazard of IMF Lending, in: The World Economy, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1983, p. 298.
Cf. Wolfgang Wetter: Das Euro-Finanzsystem im Jahre 1979/1980, HWWA Report No. 61, Hamburg 1981, pp. 13 f.
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Wetter, W. The lending policy of the International Monetary Fund. Intereconomics 20, 174–179 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02927004
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02927004