What is the current impact of the IMF and WB in Indonesia?
In return for relatively low-interest, long-term IFI loans, the Indonesian government has pledged to slash the social budget, privatise state assets, recapitalise insolvent banks, reduce trade tariffs, maintain low wages and continue the export-oriented character of the Indonesian economy. Contrary to the “growth miracles” and “export booms” that are supposed to have happened in Latin America and elsewhere, such austerity programs have brought greater poverty, more disease and less development. As one senior IMF bureaucrat put it: “The grim reality of zero growth and the fact that fuel subsidies are going to be removed will be hard for local people to swallow. But the foreign investors will be relieved.” As it turned out, the Indonesian people did not swallow it. The fuel price rise, the result of a subsidy cut, sparked mass demonstrations as it did across Indonesia previously when Suharto was forced to step down. Cronyism Reports from the independent Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) g
