How seriously should the government take the IMF’s warning?
the imf #theimf
For over a decade the Conservative Party in government has had what can only be described as an “uneasy” relationship with the International Monetary Fund. The international lender of last resort, of which Britain is the leading funder, has too often for the Tories’ liking taken aim at the government’s economic policies.
Sometimes it has been right, sometimes wrong and, as is often the case in economics, sometimes it is still under debate.
The first big clash came in 2013 when the IMF called on George Osborne to relax his austerity programme in the face of stagnant growth.
Osborne disagreed and was broadly proved correct when the economy bounced back to reach above average growth rates of 3 per cent the following year.
Two years