Austerity/Structural Adjustment

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).

Whether in the South or in the North, women bear the burdens of the debt crisis and structural adjustment policies

23 March 2018 - by Chiara Filoni

The CADTM (Committee for the abolition of illegitimate debt) is an International network that has, over the past thirty years, warned of the effects of illegitimate debt and structural adjustment policies. Public debt and the austerity measures taken to reduce it have social and economic (...)
Shocking report: Macroeconomic indicators improve but Greece’s society is suffering

9 February 2018 - by Confédération hellénique des cadres, artisans et marchands

Greek society in economic decline: Three out of four are long-time unemployed. 51% of the households depends on pensions. One in five households is afraid to lose its home. 70% of the young Greeks want to look for a work abroad. 16.3% say they cannot afford to cover an extraordinary expense of (...)
Jemna in Tunisia: An inspiring land struggle in North Africa

25 April 2017 - by Hamza Hamouchene

Jemna is a beacon of hope for a Tunisia where its people have sovereignty over their land and resources. Jemna needs to be supported, celebrated and emulated for the sake of its people and for our sake. Over the past several years, the people of Jemna, a region in southern Tunisia famous for (...)
How to apply unpopular austerity policies

22 April 2017 - by Eric Toussaint

In a document meant for government eyes, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – see Box - official Christian Morrison provides a number of recommendations. [1] The document makes one’s blood boil, and requires little comment. Here are some extracts (the subheads are the (...)
Debt audit: An alternative weapon against state capture

20 February 2017 - by Mary Serumaga

Many African nations are mired in huge debts arising from foreign loans that have hardly benefitted the people. The citizens need to audit these debts. Odious debts should be repudiated, damn the consequences. Moreover, as Thomas Sankara demonstrated in the four years he was president of (...)
Why Greek pension [counter]reforms are not sustainable

30 November 2016 - by Michel Husson

The Greek pension system has undergone many reforms since the beginning of the crisis, and the latest was extensively negotiated with the creditors. Rather than outlining the details of these reforms, the aim of this document is to highlight the specificities of the Greek pension system, in (...)
The bleak anniversary of the 3^rd Greek memorandum

1 September 2016 - by Anouk Renaud

The 13th July 2015 will from now on be considered to mark Greece’s surrender. On this date, the Syriza-Anel government led by Alexis Tsipras finalised an agreement with the European Union, which resulted in the official signing of a third memorandum on the 14th August 2015 - a true volte-face by (...)
Open letter to the Egyptian President on the pending agreement with the IMF

30 August 2016 - by Collective

In early September, the IMF is going to give to Egypt a “loan” of 12 billion dollars in exchange for lowering public spending, reducing the number of public employees, the phasing out of subsidies on consumer goods and a new privatisation program. Faced with the imminent signing of the agreement, (...)
An open letter to the Most Honourable Abdelilah Benkirane, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco, in response to untruths about the Moroccan public debt

29 August 2016 - by Salaheddine Lemaizi

From: Salaheddine Lemaizi, Militant at ATTAC Morocco To: The Most Honourable Abdelilah Benkirane, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco Subject: response to untruths about the Moroccan public debt Most Honourable Prime Minister, I have listened with great interest to your reply to the (...)
Austerity: Greece Braces for New Troika Onslaught on Workers’ Rights

2 August 2016 - by ITUC-CSI

Greek workers are preparing for yet more attacks on their fundamental rights as the IMF/EU/European Central Bank ‘Troika’, at the urging of the IMF, prepares to impose a new round of cuts to minimum wages, weakening of laws protecting workers facing dismissal and further erosion of trade union (...)
Poverty in Africa, the unvoiced failures of the World Bank

15 April 2016 - by Salaheddine Lemaizi

A recent report from the World Bank tells us that the number of Africans living in extreme poverty has considerably increased since 1990, rising from 280 million people living on less than $1.25 per day in 1990, to 330 million in 2012. For the standard-bearer of neoliberal ideology in the (...)
The 1994 Rwandan Genocide - The Use of Rwanda’s External Debt (1990-1994)

7 April 2016 - by Michel Chossudovsky, Pierre Galand

Twenty-two years after the 1994 Genocide, the role of financial institutions has to be fully understood. Development aid and foreign loans were channelled towards financing the military and paramilitary. The donors turned a blind eye. This report examines the role of multilateral and bilateral (...)
UN expert on Greece: “The excessive austerity in the public health care sector literally killed the nurse and doctor before turning to the patient”

16 March 2016 - by Eric Toussaint

The CADTM recommends that our readers should apprise themselves of Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky’s report on his Mission to Greece, which can be accessed via the link (A/HRC/31/60/Add.2). Report of the Independent Expert, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, on the effects of foreign debt and other related (...)
An analysis of the recapitalization of Greek banks in the context of the third Memorandum of Understanding

19 February 2016 - by Daniel Munevar

At the core of the ongoing economic crisis in Greece is the link between the insolvency of the Greek Government and the banks of the country. Behind this lies a story of financial recklessness, protection of vested interests and adoption of failed policies in the name of the sacrosanctity of (...)
The Third Memorandum is Unsustainable just like the previous two

1 October 2015 - by Truth Committee on the Greek Public Debt

We observe again the same assumption which underlay the two previous MoU and which has been proven wrong: a strong fiscal restraint is compatible with a recovery in growth. 1. The political economy of the third MoU The main scenario of the Third Memorandum of Understanding [1] (MoU) is (...)
Bunge La Mwananchi - Unganisha Wakenya... Referendum

5 August 2014 - by Unganisha wakenya referendum

UNGE LA MWANANCHI - UNGANISHA WAKENYA... REFERENDUM (a) Today 100,000 civil servants are going to be retrenched, through IMF and World Bank structural adjustments programme of 1990s. (b) Uhuruto promised Unga will be Ksh 60/-. Today it costs Ksh 140/- (c) WORKERS ARE LIVING ON STARVATION WAGES (...)
A summary of the report “conditionally yours: An analysis of the policy conditions attached to IMF loans”

23 April 2014 - by Giulia Simula

The European Network on Debt and Development (EURODAD) has published a report on the conditions attached to International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans. All IMF lending programmes come with conditionality attached that requires national governments to implement specific reforms in order to receive (...)
Eurodad report shows how IMF lending often makes crisis countries’ situations worse

11 April 2014 - by Eurodad

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prepares for its Spring meetings, new research reveals that the number of conditions it attaches to its loans are rising – and they continue to be linked to harsh austerity measures and interfere in sensitive policy areas. Conditionally Yours: An analysis (...)
« The IMF will take advantage of the present crisis to grant more and bigger loans. »

RFI: The IMF has decided to rescue many European countries such as Iceland, Ukraine, and today, Hungary, by granting them important loans. Why these particular countries according to you? Eric Toussaint: First of all it has to be clear that the IMF itself is going through a crisis. It is in a (...)
What are the alternatives for human development?

20 October 2008 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2008, the financial, economic, food and climate crises have worsened dramatically throughout the world. The effects will be long-lasting. The international organizations and most governments have responded in ways that can only cast further doubt on their own legitimacy. Indeed the (...)
Resolution of solidarity and support for the people of Haiti

Between August 15 and September 7, 2008, the Caribbean was severely hit by four successive hurricanes (Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike) that devastated several regions with disastrous consequences in particular for the peoples of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. We express our fraternal (...)
Global Famine

1 June 2008 - by Michel Chossudovsky

Humanity is undergoing in the post-Cold War era an economic and social crisis of unprecedented scale leading to the rapid impoverishment of large sectors of the World population. National economies are collapsing, unemployment is rampant. Local level famines have erupted in Sub-Saharan Africa, (...)
Zambia: Debt Reduction Doesn’t Guarantee Debt Sustainability - World Bank

5 September 2006 - by Mwila Nkonge

DEBT reduction is insufficient for debt sustainability, the World Bank has noted. Article by Mwila Nkonge published in The Post (Lusaka).
GUINEA: Unions threaten indefinite strike

7 June 2006 - by IRIN

Guinea’s two most powerful trade unions have threatened to call an unlimited general strike from Thursday unless the government acts on demands issued two weeks ago. May fuel price rises, implemented in line with International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) policy to end fuel subsidies, have forced (...)
Dogmatic Development: Privatisation and conditionalities in six countries

7 April 2004 - by War on Want, PSIRU

This report looks at how conditionalities and pressures from aid agencies and development banks force developing countries to adopt privatisation policies in public services. It focuses specifically on the sectors of water, electricity, and healthcare, in six countries: Colombia; El Salvador; (...)