 The IMF’s Exceptional Access Policy: It’s Not WorkingSean Hagan No 2501, FDL Policy Notes from CEPREMAP Abstract: On December 12, 2024, the IMF’s Internal Evaluation Office (IEO) released its evaluation of the IMF’s exceptional access policy. Over the years, the IEO has delivered a number of well-informed and – on occasion – sharply critical evaluations of the IMF’s activities, accompanied by recommendations that have had a meaningful impact on the IMF’s reform agenda. Given the central role that the exceptional access policy plays in the IMF’s lending activities, this evaluation is a particularly important one. The IEO’s analysis of the application of the exceptional policy amply supports its conclusion that the policy has not achieved its central objective. While many of the IEO’s recommendations make sense, one of them – the introduction of an exceptional circumstances clause – is very problematic. This note advocates for an additional reform feature, one designed to safeguard the IMF’s catalytic role, while preserving flexibility. Specifically, it calls for the establishment of hard ex ante limits on exceptional access in "grey zone" cases; i.e., in those cases where the IMF does not have full confidence in the sustainability of the member’s debt. Keywords: IMF; Exceptional Access Policy; Debt Crisis; Lending Activities; Financial Institutions; Balance of Payments; Risk Management; Adjustment Programs; Policy Reform; Internal Evaluation Office; Economic Stability (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpm:notfdl:2501 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in FDL Policy Notes from CEPREMAP Contact information at EDIRC. |
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