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).

The accomplices to austerity are also responsible for human rights violations

21 November 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

The question is not whether austerity plays a role in violating human rights but how big a role it plays: how much of an impact it has on indicators such as mortality rates, employment, equality, health, housing and levels of violence. Adjustment and austerity measures are often among the (...)
Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay

24 October 2019 - by Jerome Roos, George Souvlis

Debt-stricken countries like Greece have continued repaying their creditors even though it’s hammering workers’ living standards. They should stick it to the banks and default instead. The European debt crisis that began a decade ago has offered stark insights into not only the European Union (...)
Financial institutions complicit in impact of austerity measures on human rights, says UN expert

10 September 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

GENEVA (10 September 2019) – Austerity measures imposed by international financial institutions such as the IMF, regularly cause violations of human rights, says UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky in a report to be presented to the UN General Assembly (...)
A profits recession?

22 July 2019 - by Michael Roberts

This week, we get the first US company reports on earnings for the second quarter of 2019. And it looks as though there will be the first back-to-back drop in overall earnings since the mini-recession of 2016. S&P 500 companies are expected to report an average earnings fall of 2.8 per (...)
A critical review of the critical reviews of the book ’Adults in the Room’ by Yanis Varoufakis

12 February 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

The book Adults in the Room [1] by Yanis Varoufakis has given rise to some very interesting criticism from Adam Tooze in The New York Review of Books (“A Modern Greek Tragedy”), J.W. Mason in the Boston Review (“Austerity by Design”), Pavlos Roufos in The Brooklyn Rail (“Inside the Disenchanted (...)
The Greek people are tax hostages to the Troika and the bankers

15 January 2019 - by Louv Coukoutsi

Louv Coukoutsi, CADTM correspondent in Greece In Greece, an Autonomous Authority over Public Resources (Anexartiti Archi Dimosion Esodon, AADE), that has two sitting representatives of the European Commission, has replaced the Greek Exchequer and retrieved all the attributions of the ministry (...)
Facing the left-wing challenge in the European Union

22 November 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

It is shocking to see that the right-wing government in power in Italy since Summer 2018 refuses to reduce the budgetary deficit while so-called left-wing governments bow to the constraints of austerity. It is now, when the peoples of the Eurozone are ever more disgusted by the policies imposed (...)
Forced marriage between Argentina and the IMF turns into a fiasco

9 November 2018 - by Jérôme Duval

While the discontent of the Argentine people grows day by day, President Mauricio Macri flees to the United States. In New York, he continues negotiations with the IMF to revise the already outdated agreement signed in June, intervenes in the UN Assembly, and is given an award for his (...)
Argentina in turmoil

24 October 2018 - by Jérôme Duval

After Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced, on 3rd September, a brutal austerity plan under IMF supervision, the people hit the streets to express their anger at rising prices and budget cuts. Seventeen years after the 2001 crisis in Argentina, the Macri government, which came to (...)
The IMF and World Bank: Aiding and abetting inequality in Asia

10 October 2018 - by Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development

Despite economic growth, inequality in Asia deepens Fiscal neoliberalism imposed by IFIs continues to exacerbate inequality Civil society renews calls to hold World Bank and IMF to account for their actions Asia continues to draw attention as the “most important engine of global growth,” (...)
Greece exits loan programme as impacts of Troika-led austerity are revealed

9 October 2018 - by Bretton Woods Project

Study highlights catastrophic health impact of Troika-imposed austerity Debt network stresses Greek crisis derived from private debt In August, Greece exited its eight-year programme of loans from the ‘Troika’ (the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank) (see Observer Winter 2017). (...)
New study shows effects of austerity on health in Greece

22 August 2018 - by Global Burden of Disease 2016 Greece Collaborators

Researchers from the University of Washington and abroad have just published a study on the effects of the financial crisis in Greece, and more particularly of the consequences on health of the austerity measures imposed by the Troika (EU, ECB and IMF). The important decrease in health-care (...)
The political cost of IMF programmes

17 August 2018 - by Bretton Woods Project

Summary - Political ramifications of IMF programme in Jordan trigger protests - Jordanian prime minister resigns - Developments raise broader questions around IMF conditionality In June, King Abdullah II of Jordan accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki, amid the biggest (...)
Debts and feminisms: an overview of the book project – first chapter

13 August 2018 - by Camille Bruneau

Feminism and the situation of women is an ever-growing concern for the CADTM network, which becomes almost unavoidable in the broad fight against domination(s). Women are indeed impacted by debt in several ways; as the main contractors of micro-credits, as the caretakers that have a higher (...)
Greece still under the yoke of its illegitimate debt

20 July 2018 - by Anouk Renaud

On Friday 22 June 2018, after night-long negotiations, the Eurogroup (meeting of the finance ministers of the eurozone, along with representatives of the IMF and the ECB) announced with great fanfare / pomp and circumstances, a new agreement concerning Greece. It is supposed to be a “historic” (...)
Greece: the so called debt reduction is a sleight of hand

25 June 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, Marie Brette

Eric Toussaint interviewed by Marie Brette for TV5 Monde Eric Toussaint, what do you think of the agreement between the Eurozone ministers? Has Greece got through the crisis? E.T.: The crisis is not at all over. What’s more, from the point of view of the European leaders the situation is not (...)
Armenia’s unfinished revolution

25 May 2018 - by Armen Abagyan

Bells of triumph are ringing in the streets of Yerevan following the deposition of now-former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead. The spectre of totalitarian rule and unbridled corruption enervating the already impoverished Armenian people is no more. Such is the (...)
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, (...)