Logo of the Alternative Platform to the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Lima. Image: Alternative Platform
- The World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings and the big lie that we cannot let pass.
By Carlos Bedoya*
Servindi, 23 September, 2015.- From the 5th to 12th October, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings will be held in Lima, and with them will come more than 10,000 public officials from multilateral institutions, banks and businesses officials from around the world to discuss things like the impact of the new US monetary policy and the future of the Chinese economy, among other global phenomena.
And although the World Bank and the IMF are bringing the party when the Peruvian economy is in decline, the main message of these two heavyweights is that they are part of Peru´s economic "success story", in the sense of telling the world that if they follow their policies and recommendations, they will prosper as the Peruvians.
But that is a big lie that we cannot let pass, because it is a misleading way of interpreting our recent economic history.
The high rates of growth in Peru, observed especially between 2005 and 2012, were not due to any policy applied by the technocrats of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) that govern us since the times of Fujimori.
It happened because of the boom in metals prices and the massive inflow of short-term foreign investments, resulting from the lowering of the interest rates to zero or very close to zero by major central banks, as in the United States. That condition began in 2003 but is over and so is Peru´s economic boom.
Proof of this is the Peruvian recession of 1998-2002. Nobody seems to remember how bad the situation was by the impact of the Asian crisis during those years, although we followed every recommendation made by the World Bank and the IMF.
The responsibility of this institutions on what Peruvians have lived since Fujimori imposed its economic shock in 1991, for which we still have to settle scores, is the disappearance of the Peruvian Development Bank, the Peruvian Institute of Social Security, and the privatization of most of the Peruvian State, including the management of natural resources.
Now that commercial banks take us grime with their interests and conditions, pensions are low and the failure of the AFP system is evident. And the fact that we can´t even handle an oil block with proven reserves like Lot 192, among other things, is the result of an ideology imposed on us by the World Bank and the IMF. We will have a great opportunity to say this to their face.
* Lawyer, journalist and adviser of the Latin American Network on Debt and Development (Latindadd).
Source: http://www.otramirada.pe/el-fondo-y-el-banco-en-lima
English version by Servindi
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