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CARICOM Summit : IMF chief defends agency’s assistance to Caribbean countries
2010-07-07 12:38:19 | (0 Comments)
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]MONTEGO [COLOR=blue! important]BAY[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], Jamaica, CMC - International Monetary [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Fund[/COLOR][/COLOR] (IMF) chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has strongly refuted suggestions that the agency has not readily come to the rescue of Caribbean economies in the wake of the global downturn.
“When you look at the different programmes which have been put in place and the different support that we have provided to countries as a percentage of [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]GDP[/COLOR][/COLOR] (Gross Domestic Product), it’s much higher than what has been done in some other parts of the world,” Straus-Kahn said on the fringes of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government summit that ends here on Wednesday.
In an interview with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), the IMF managing director said based on that method of calculation, regional countries have received more assistance per capita when compared to some larger countries on the hemisphere.
“As a percentage of GDP we helped more Jamaica or Antigua and Barbuda or other countries of the CARICOM than the big ones.
“Of course, the amounts are smaller because the countries are smaller but as a percentage of GDP, we have done more. So it’s absolutely wrong to say that we didn’t devote not only attention but the resources, not talking about technical assistance that we have provided also,” Strauss-Kahn told CMC.
The IMF chief, who described the [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Washington[/COLOR][/COLOR]-based international lending agency as a “doctor”, has diagnosed several regional economies as being critically sick and prescribing a bitter pill to help them in their recovery.
“It’s not our fault but the country is sick and we need to try and cure it. So it is not always harmless. When you ask your doctor to come, he gives you medicine and in our case it’s mostly money. But it also tells you [that] you have to change the way how you live. If you don’t change the way you live, you can take all the medicine you want [but] you won’t heal.
“So that’s exactly what we say … we give you [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]money[/COLOR][/COLOR] to help you but at the same time we have to change the policy, the policy which put you in this situation. Of course it’s harmful, and so people don’t like us but they shouldn’t blame the doctor,” he said.
A number of CARICOM countries, including [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Jamaica[/COLOR][/COLOR] and Antigua and Barbuda, have turned to the IMF to help prop up their economies in light of the challenges posed by the global downturn.
Strauss-Kahn said while it would be very easy for a Caribbean person to say that the conditions attached by his agency are harsh, he said the region must be willing to play by the rules.
“It is very bitter … and were I a Jamaican, I would say ‘those guys from the IMF, what are they thinking about? It’s too difficult for me.’ It’s very difficult because a mistake has been made. Also, some times not very many mistakes have been made but then the economic environment, the global crisis, and you have to face it. Life is not always easy,” he told CMC.
2010-07-07 12:38:19 | (0 Comments)
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]MONTEGO [COLOR=blue! important]BAY[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], Jamaica, CMC - International Monetary [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Fund[/COLOR][/COLOR] (IMF) chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has strongly refuted suggestions that the agency has not readily come to the rescue of Caribbean economies in the wake of the global downturn.
“When you look at the different programmes which have been put in place and the different support that we have provided to countries as a percentage of [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]GDP[/COLOR][/COLOR] (Gross Domestic Product), it’s much higher than what has been done in some other parts of the world,” Straus-Kahn said on the fringes of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government summit that ends here on Wednesday.
In an interview with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), the IMF managing director said based on that method of calculation, regional countries have received more assistance per capita when compared to some larger countries on the hemisphere.
“As a percentage of GDP we helped more Jamaica or Antigua and Barbuda or other countries of the CARICOM than the big ones.
“Of course, the amounts are smaller because the countries are smaller but as a percentage of GDP, we have done more. So it’s absolutely wrong to say that we didn’t devote not only attention but the resources, not talking about technical assistance that we have provided also,” Strauss-Kahn told CMC.
The IMF chief, who described the [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Washington[/COLOR][/COLOR]-based international lending agency as a “doctor”, has diagnosed several regional economies as being critically sick and prescribing a bitter pill to help them in their recovery.
“It’s not our fault but the country is sick and we need to try and cure it. So it is not always harmless. When you ask your doctor to come, he gives you medicine and in our case it’s mostly money. But it also tells you [that] you have to change the way how you live. If you don’t change the way you live, you can take all the medicine you want [but] you won’t heal.
“So that’s exactly what we say … we give you [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]money[/COLOR][/COLOR] to help you but at the same time we have to change the policy, the policy which put you in this situation. Of course it’s harmful, and so people don’t like us but they shouldn’t blame the doctor,” he said.
A number of CARICOM countries, including [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Jamaica[/COLOR][/COLOR] and Antigua and Barbuda, have turned to the IMF to help prop up their economies in light of the challenges posed by the global downturn.
Strauss-Kahn said while it would be very easy for a Caribbean person to say that the conditions attached by his agency are harsh, he said the region must be willing to play by the rules.
“It is very bitter … and were I a Jamaican, I would say ‘those guys from the IMF, what are they thinking about? It’s too difficult for me.’ It’s very difficult because a mistake has been made. Also, some times not very many mistakes have been made but then the economic environment, the global crisis, and you have to face it. Life is not always easy,” he told CMC.
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