LATVIA: Crippled By Strict IMF Policies.

GUARDIAN.UK/ Mark Weisbrot Opinion/

"The IMF has long had a double standard when it comes to macroeconomic policy: for the rich countries it is generally Keynesian, advocating the kinds of counter-cyclical fiscal and monetary policies that the US has adopted during the current recession. Yet for the low-and-middle income countries it has often pushed the opposite policies.

But to be fair, the IMF does not appear to be the driving force behind these decisions – rather it is the European governments, who are putting up most of the loan money for Latvia. In this case the Fund is going along with the EU, even though it appears that its economists can see that these policies are wrong..."