IMF, Gulf Loans Are a Trap For Non-Oil States - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General, finance ministers from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the IMF managing director at a meeting in Riyadh.
(photo by REUTERS/Fahad Shadeed)

The International Monetary Fund has returned to the forefront to play a bigger role than ever in the fate of Arab non-oil producing countries. Its advice and terms were partly responsible for the impoverishment of rural Tunis, Damascus, Alexandria, Sana’a and others. For its policy has always been predicated on giving priority to reducing subsidies and the development of world trade, at the expense of rural areas and the countryside. Why do Arab rulers, new and old, of non-oil producing countries, insist then on giving the IMF such leverage?

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