Brooking Institution’s “Future Development”: Why the IMF needs to build on its COVID-19 record, not backtrack
Kevin P. Gallagher, professor of global development policy at Boston University and member of the U.N. Committee on Development Policy, discusses the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) response to the COVID-19 pandemic, writing, “[T]he research shows the IMF is falling far short in encouraging countries to mount a green recovery. And now, new rhetoric from IMF officials suggests a return to austerity may be around the corner. … As the coronavirus continues to sweep through emerging market and developing countries, governments need more fiscal space, not less. That fiscal space could come in the form of new IMF resources and debt relief, and member countries must be encouraged to use that fiscal space to mount stimulus packages that promote a healthy, green, and inclusive recovery” (10/13).