(ECONOMICS) international bank created after World War 2 to coordinate currency stabilization. Main policy tool consists of lending money to
central bank of countries facing a
liquidity crisis.
In some cases, as when a member government is insolvent, the IMF will impose a structural adjustment program (SAP) requiring the government to
jettison programs it has to serve the poor. For this reason, the IMF is often harshly criticized.
It is often said that the International Monetary Fund makes economic crises worse by imposing the same
austerity program everywhere, thereby further reducing a member state's ability to pay its sovereign debt.
(Another way of putting this is that the
IMF's policies are
pro-cyclical