1. The IMF's Dilemma in Argentina: Time for a New Approach to Lending?
- Author:
- Carol Graham and Paul Robert Masson
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- In recent years, the international financial system has faced tremendous challenges, from the Asia, Russia, and Brazil crises in the late 1990s, to Argentina's default and ensuing economic collapse in 2002 to new worries about a possible default in Brazil. An increasing number of observers are questioning the way the international financial institutions manage these crises. An alternative approach that is endorsed in principle by many—including Horst Köhler, the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—is a move toward more selective lending with fewer conditions, with the decision to lend based on a more general and ultimately political assessment of the recipient government's capacity to deliver on its promises. Argentina provides a potential test bed for this approach.
- Topic:
- International Organization and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Asia, Brazil, Argentina, South America, and Latin America