IMF Chief's Performance Surprises Many --- The Global Lender's Koehler Has Won Over Skeptics Of Different Stripes
PRAGUE -- After five months in office, International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler has begun to win over many of those who wondered whether he was up to leading the global lender through a period of public excoriation and internal reform.</br></br>As thousands of antiglobalization protesters laid siege to the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank here yesterday, Mr. Koehler laid out his vision for the agency responsible for rushing in with big loans and stern advice when a developing nation finds itself in financial crisis. The IMF, Mr. Koehler told top officials from 182 member nations, must "make globalization work for the benefit of all."</br></br>His effort to focus the IMF on emergency loans for better-off developing countries, and on poverty reduction and debt relief for the worst-off, won't convince the IMF's harshest critics, who believe its economic prescriptions favor corporations over the poor and the environment. But his approach is securing him the grudging cooperation of some outside activists and "so far, so good" kudos from member governments, large and small.</br></br>The Clinton administration likes his embrace of many of Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers's reform proposals. The British praise his ability to talk debt relief with antipoverty advocates. The Yemenis applaud when he prods rich countries to open their markets to exports from the developing world.</br></br>These aren't necessarily the reviews that Mr. Koehler, 57 years old, might have expected. His appointment came after a bitter trans-Atlantic clash. Now, however, Clinton administration officials are warming to Mr. Koehler, who has endorsed many of the IMF reform proposals that Mr. Summers himself first put forth, such as the focus on crisis finance. Just last week the IMF board redesigned its lending programs -- shorter terms and higher rates -- to encourage countries such as Brazil, Egypt and Indonesia to borrow only when they're locked out of private capital markets. Preapproved credit lines are available to countries whose economic policies are judged sound but that might still be hit by contagious market panic.