IMF has narrow, selfish interests

EDITOR—Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak once referred to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the ‘International Misery Fund’ because of the belt-tightening conditions that accompanies its loans.

Frankly, I am a little cynical about the announcement of 1trillion dollars being injected into the IMF by the Group of 20 richest countries in the world.

At first glance, it looks like aid but it is really loans with heavy strings attached that end up exploiting countries with little or no foreign debt, a lot of natural resources and cheap labour (like Uganda), and benefiting the wealthy countries that put up most of the financial reserves.

The IMF has a poor history of lecturing, dictating and exploiting poor countries.

It only protects the narrow interests of its most powerful member countries.

I hope that changes and that developing countries will play a more active role regulating lending. 

They also ought to be more fairly represented on the 24-member Executive Board.

Douglas Kisaka
Los Angeles