1. Nothing to lose but your chains.
- Subjects
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POOR people , *ECONOMISTS , *GRANTS in aid (Public finance) , *AFRICANS ,ECONOMIC conditions in Africa - Abstract
The article contends that Africa is the only continent in the poor world where people ended the 1980s worse off than they were at the start. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are convenient targets. The typical African grumble against them runs thus: from their plush offices in Washington, these institutions make life miserable for Africans, so that African governments can take out loans which they are then unable to repay. Most of the Bank's economists say that Africa's performance has been disappointing not because the gospel is wrong, but because it has not been properly implemented. The Bank's other defense is that some of its recent studies on Africa- of which there are horribly many- suggest that the closing years of the 1980s did indeed see stronger growth and lower inflation in the countries it lent to. Most of all, governments must not feel that the Fund and Bank have trampled on their sovereignty.
- Published
- 1993