The International Monetary Fund's Effects on Global Health: Before and after the 2008 Financial Crisis
Open Access
- 1 October 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in International Journal of Health Services
- Vol. 39 (4), 771-781
- https://doi.org/10.2190/hs.39.4.j
Abstract
In April 2009, the G20 countries committed US$750 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has assumed a central role in global economic management. The IMF provides loans to financially ailing countries, but with strict conditions, typically involving a mix of privatization, liberalization, and fiscal austerity programs. These loan conditions have been extremely controversial. In principle, they are designed to help countries balance their books. In practice, they often translate into reductions in social spending, including spending on public health and health care delivery. As more countries are being exposed to IMF policies, there is a need to establish what we know and do not know about the IMF's effects on global health. This article introduces a series in which contributors review the evidence on the relationship between the IMF and public health and discuss potential ways to improve the Fund's effects on health. While more evidence is needed for some regions, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that IMF programs have been significantly associated with weakened health care systems, reduced effectiveness of health-focused development aid, and impeded efforts to control tobacco, infectious diseases, and child and maternal mortality. Reforms are urgently needed to prevent the current wave of IMF programs from further undermining public health in financially ailing countries and limiting progress toward the health Millennium Development Goals.Keywords
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- How will the financial crisis affect health?BMJ, 2009
- Trade and health: an agenda for actionThe Lancet, 2009
- Inflation and economic growth: a cross-country nonlinear analysisJournal of Post Keynesian Economics, 2006
- Evolution of Tuberculosis Control and Prospects for Reducing Tuberculosis Incidence, Prevalence, and Deaths GloballyJAMA, 2005
- Expenditure ceilings, multilateral financial institutions, and the health of poor populationsThe Lancet, 2005
- Pushing up smoking incidence: plans for a privatised tobacco industry in MoldovaThe Lancet, 2005
- Moving East: how the transnational tobacco industry gained entry to the emerging markets of the former Soviet Union—part I: establishing cigarette importsTobacco Control, 2004
- The effect of IMF programs on economic growthJournal of Development Economics, 2000
- Socioeconomic obstacles to HIV prevention and treatment in developing countriesAIDS, 1995
- Towards an understanding of the real effects and costs of inflationReview of World Economics, 1978