Gallagher Publishes Op-Ed on the IMF & COVID-19 Recovery
Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was published in Brookings‘ Future Development blog discussing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its progress in tackling the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his op-ed, titled “Why the IMF needs to build on its COVID-19 record, not backtrack,” Gallagher discusses IMF efforts to protect vulnerable populations throughout the pandemic as well as the findings of the IMF COVID-19 Recovery Index, a measurement tool for the IMF’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic developed by the Pardee School’s Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center).
In detailing the findings, Gallagher stated that the IMF should be commended for providing emergency programs that give countries the flexibility to “get their own houses in order without onerous oversight and conditionality” and endorsing an increase in health spending to protect vulnerable people and firms during the crisis. However, he did point out that investments in a “green recovery” have been lacking. While the IMF has made great strides in combatting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gallagher warns that there is a risk of backsliding into the old ways, which the world economy cannot afford.
An excerpt:
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.
The full piece can be read on Brookings’ website.
Kevin Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, where he directs the Global Development Policy Center. He is author or co-author of six books, including most recently, The China Triangle: Latin America’s China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus. Read more about him here.