There are mixed messages from the International Monetary Fund. The UK gets a pat on the back for its recovery, but the fund warns of darker clouds ahead in its latest World Economic Outlook. Overall, the…
To have one leader investigated for serious misconduct may be regarded as misfortune; to have two come under investigation looks like carelessness. But the International Monetary Fund finds itself in that…
China’s leaders have been vocal in their support of a new growth model, one where consumption leads the way. Economic commentators fret about what this means for Australia. One view is that economic pain…
Could history one day judge the latest BRICS summit as significant as the Bretton Woods conference of 1944? That is the hope of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as they meet…
Australia’s house prices are grossly overinflated – if you believe the International Monetary Fund’s recent analysis. It says radical policies are required to deflate this emerging housing bubble, such…
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is back. On Thursday May 16 he took a major part in a prime-time documentary about the Euro – where he criticised Nicolas Sarkozy’s response to the 2008-9 economic crisis. The following…
In the lead up to the budget, the story of crisis has been hammered home, but there’s more to a country than its structural deficit. So how is Australia doing overall? In this special series, ten writers…
Having clashed previously with governments over the wisdom of their austerity policies, few fireworks followed the publication of the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook on Tuesday. But…
Since the 1970s, economic orthodoxy has suggested that inequality might be the price worth paying for economic growth. Following a new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the evidence is…
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 major economies will meet in Sydney this week. A lot of troubled financial waters have flowed under the bridge since this group last met…
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will today begin their marathon three-day annual meeting in Washington D.C. to review the last year and set out strategies for the future. And while it…
The current political crisis in Portugal has surprised both local economists who know little about politics and international analysts who are ill-informed about the Portuguese economy. In May, I had the…
The IMF has conceded that mistakes were made in the way the first Greek bailout in May 2010 was handled. Its report suggests the need to refine the fund’s lending policies to accommodate for conditions…
The European Union (or at least its periphery) is a big, sick patient that so far has been treated with robust injections of fiscal austerity. This seemed to be the right course of action to cure the “debt…
John Van Reenen, London School of Economics and Political Science
The International Monetary Fund’s annual investigation into the health of the UK economy makes ugly reading. The IMF points out that “per capita income remains 6% below its pre-crisis peak, making this…
The International Monetary Fund’s annual report on the UK economy calls for the Chancellor to boost economic growth through investing in infrastructure. While the IMF is right to make this point, we must…
Uninsured savings over €100,000 deposited in a troubled Cypriot bank may be subject to a new levy, under a deal reached to save the Cyprus banking system. The European Union (EU) finance ministers, the…
In a rare volte-face, the International Monetary Fund this week admitted that it grossly underestimated the impact of the austerity regime it advised Europeans to adopt. A paper authored by IMF chief economist…
Up until fairly recently, Spain was a story of economic success. It was an example of how the periphery of Europe was quickly catching up with the core. Between 1995 and 2007, Spanish real GDP grew at…
Greece’s New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras begins the task of building a coalition after emerging as the front runner to form a government. Reports indicate New Democracy has narrowly beaten leftist…