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IMF, World Bank

to debate future global economy

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policymakers gather here later this week to the debate the future of the global economy but their closed-door deliberations could easily be eclipsed by massive street protests.

Organisers say thousands of demonstrators will pour into the streets of the US capital on Sunday, when the IMF's international monetary and financial committee convenes, and Monday, when the development committee of the World Bank is set to meet.

Some of the delegates, in fact, may be unable to get to the discussions, as one goal of the protests is to "shut down" the meetings through non-violent direct action.

Activists here say they hope to build on momentum generated in Seattle last December, when a huge street mobilisation disrupted a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

They are now taking aim at the IMF and the World Bank, whose harshly conditioned lending programmes, they charge, have harmed the environment and imposed poverty on millions of people in developing countries.

But the IMF officials insist that the global economy is doing substantially better than had been expected 12 months ago.

A Fund survey to be released here in Wednesday will show that global output should grow by more than four percent this year, with inflation remaining well in check, according to acting IMF managing director Stanley Fischer.

The World Bank last week reported that developing countries were likely to enjoy average growth rates of 4.6 percent this year, a sharp revision from its earlier estimates.

Despite such benign overall circumstances, as well as the impressive turnaround in Asian economies that floundered in 1997-1998 and were helped by the Fund and the Bank, the two institutions are getting little credit.

They have been pilloried by non-governmental organisations and by a blue-ribbon commission appointed by the US Congress to analyse their operations.

A report from the commission last month faulted the IMF's short-term response to crises as "too costly... too slow... and often incorrect" and said it failed to improve economic conditions in the developing world.

The Bank was criticised for continuing to lend to wealthier developing nations that have access to private capital and was urged to re-focus its activities on poor countries.

Fischer has acknowledged that the IMF may have erred in the past but insists that its financial assistance packages, its surveillance of national economies and the technical assistance it offers remain valid activities.ÑAFP