IMF Shift to Eastern Europe Stirs Discontent in Third World
After two decades mired in the intractable problems of African development and Latin American debt, the International Monetary Fund and its sister institution, the World Bank, are turning attention - and resources - to the newly liberated nations of Eastern Europe.</br></br>This year alone, Eastern Europe is expected to receive a total of $17 billion from the IMF, the World Bank and Western governments - in addition to the more than $16 billion in debt relief granted to Poland by the governments of major industrialized nations and the billions in German assistance for the former East Germany.</br></br>As aid pours into the former Soviet satellites, an increasing number of other countries have been asking for equal treatment. They are complaining that the IMF and World Bank are setting their priorities to suit the political purposes of their biggest donors - the United States and Western Europe - while giving up on the Third World.</br></br>"The attention of international civil servants is limited, so they've forgotten about Africa," said Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski, a managing director at the New York investment bank First Boston Corp.</br></br>Moreover, the IMF push to dampen inflation through relatively higher interest rates hurts demand for the commodities on which many developing countries rely for export earnings. And until the commitment of money was made to Eastern Europe, the IMF had been a net collector of money, because other countries are repaying more loans from the fund than they are receiving.