Gallagher Publishes Op-Ed on IMF Surcharges
Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center) at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a Financial Times op-ed on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) emergency finance programs and their surcharges, which put the economic recovery of middle-income countries at risk.
In the article, titled “The IMF’s surcharges are unfit for purpose,” Gallagher discusses how current IMF surcharges on loans to countries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic will inevitably slow their economic recovery and squeeze them for payments when they need a focus of domestic capital. He recommends suspending these surcharges to help countries recover from the pandemic and advices the IMF to “rethink its broken business model.”
The full op-ed can be read on the Financial Times‘ 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 Professor Gallagher on his Pardee School faculty profile.