Economic policies imposed by the IMF in exchange of new loans or the rescheduling of old loans.
Structural Adjustments policies were enforced in the early 1980 to qualify countries for new loans or for debt rescheduling by the IMF and the World Bank. The requested kind of adjustment aims at ensuring that the country can again service its external debt. Structural adjustment usually combines the following elements : devaluation of the national currency (in order to bring down the prices of exported goods and attract strong currencies), rise in interest rates (in order to attract international capital), reduction of public expenditure (’streamlining’ of public services staff, reduction of budgets devoted to education and the health sector, etc.), massive privatisations, reduction of public subsidies to some companies or products, freezing of salaries (to avoid inflation as a consequence of deflation). These SAPs have not only substantially contributed to higher and higher levels of indebtedness in the affected countries ; they have simultaneously led to higher prices (because of a high VAT rate and of the free market prices) and to a dramatic fall in the income of local populations (as a consequence of rising unemployment and of the dismantling of public services, among other factors).
What kind of austerity after the Covid crisis?
2 December 2020 - by Eva Betavatzi
Complicity of International Financial Institutions in Violation of Human Rights in the Context of Economic Reforms
30 November 2020 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 25)
The IMF and the World Bank in the time of Coronavirus: the failed campaign for a new image
9 November 2020 - by Eric Toussaint, Emilie Paumard, Milan Rivié
Agro-imperialism in the time of Covid-19
16 July 2020 - by GRAIN
Capitulating to adults
31 May 2020 - by Michael Roberts
Argentina
Voluntary Termination of Debt
18 May 2020 - by Verónica Gago, Luci Cavallero
The debt dilemma
11 May 2020 - by Michael Roberts
Cancel the debt so doctors and nurses can keep saving lives
7 May 2020 - by Collective
Now more than ever, supporting abolition of the debt is a priority!
5 May 2020 - by Brigitte Marti
The scarring
4 May 2020 - by Michael Roberts
End the inhumane migratory policies of Fortress Europe
23 April 2020 - by ReCommons Europe
World Bank and IMF response to debt crisis undermines women’s rights
10 April 2020 - by Iolanda Fresnillo, Verónica Serafini
Abolish illegitimate and odious claims by European countries from third parties and give absolute priority to human rights
3 April 2020 - by ReCommons Europe
Call of the indigenous peoples, afro-descendants and peoples’ organizations of Latin America
3 April 2020 - by CADTM, Collective
Latin America and the outbreak of COVID-19: a chronicle of multiple crises
31 March 2020 - by María Romero
Fighting Coronavirus: It’s Time to Invest in Universal Public Health
26 March 2020 - by Isabel Ortiz, Thomas Stubbs
IMF: Inhuman at the micro and macro levels
27 February 2020 - by Eric Toussaint
IMF and World Bank complicit in ‘austerity as new normal’, despite availability of alternatives
12 February 2020 - by Bretton Woods Project
The People of Colombia Are Cracking Up the Walls of War and Authoritarianism
20 January 2020 - by Justin Podur
The accomplices to austerity are also responsible for human rights violations
21 November 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay
24 October 2019 - by Jerome Roos, George Souvlis
Financial institutions complicit in impact of austerity measures on human rights, says UN expert
10 September 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
A profits recession?
22 July 2019 - by Michael Roberts
A critical review of the critical reviews of the book ’Adults in the Room’ by Yanis Varoufakis
12 February 2019 - by Eric Toussaint
The Greek people are tax hostages to the Troika and the bankers
15 January 2019 - by Louv Coukoutsi
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