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).
“Austerity driven economic reforms affect women more than men”
14 September 2023 - by Balasingham Skanthakumar, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Lakmali Hemachandra
Chile: 50 years after the disgrace Neoliberalism at gun point
7 September 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Roberto González Amador
How debt may help explain the political economy of European migration policies
31 August 2023 - by Felipe Milin, Irene Valde
Pakistan : The IMF deal and its critics
24 July 2023 - by Sushovan Dhar
The IMF’s conditional loan and its cost
18 July 2023 - by Farooq Tariq
A World To Win
30 June 2023 - by Jawad Moustakbal, Jeremy Corbyn, Aline Piva , Walter Baier, Gabriel Mocho Rodríguez, Francesca Emanuele
3 questions to Sushovan Dhar on the disastrous train accident in India
22 June 2023 - by Sushovan Dhar, Robin Delobel
Deeper than ever, the crisis leaves capitalism out of breath
20 June 2023 - by Eric Toussaint
Next Time, Dammit, Just Default
12 June 2023 - by James K. Galbraith
The Debt Deal Is a Tragedy
31 May 2023 - by James K. Galbraith
Ukraine: Resisting creditors
23 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar
Greece: another chapter
22 May 2023 - by Michael Roberts
The Fitch rating agency downgraded France’s rating.
France Shown Yellow Card
13 May 2023 - by Yvette Krolikowski
Resisting the Shock Doctrine: Ukraine, Debt, and Reconstruction
12 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar, Ashley Smith, Yuliya Yurchenko
France: What happens when Macron has already been defeated but the great popular movement has not yet won?
9 May 2023 - by Yorgos Mitralias
What’s the problem with pensions?
1 April 2023 - by Michael Roberts
The pension crisis (France): Faced with social anger, Macron replaces legitimacy with police batons
29 March 2023 - by Léon Crémieux
May 1968 - March 2023!
27 March 2023 - by Yorgos Mitralias
Youth mobilize against Macron’s scorn
27 March 2023 - by Maxime Perriot
Macron’s up against the wall, let’s not let the 49.3 save him
20 March 2023 - by Léon Crémieux
Greece: The infamy of a predicted terrible rail disaster
6 March 2023 - by Yorgos Mitralias
The aftermath of Sri Lanka’s economic crash
5 March 2023 - by Meera Srinivasan
Haiti, which questions ?
27 February 2023 - by Mireille Fanon-Mendès France, Boubacar Boris Diop
From Lebanon to Sri Lanka through Latin America and Egypt: Public debt today and in the history of capitalism
26 February 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Anis Germany
Our Future is Public: Santiago Declaration for Public Services
26 January 2023 - by Collective
0 | 50