Rollback

The Bank and the Fund have made full use of the new leverage over Third World economies that accrued them during the debt crisis. The right wing economic views made popular - the Reagan- and Thatcherites came the reigning economic orthodoxy at the Bank and the IMF. They launched a policy to 'structurally adjust' the Third World by deflating economies and demanding a withdrawal of government not only from public enterprise but also from compassionate support of the basic health and welfare of the most vulnerable. Exports to earn foreign exchange were privileged over almost all production of food and other foods for domestic use. This structuring was highly successful from the point of view of the private banks who got $178 billion out of the South between 1984 and 1990 alone. The Third World debt continued to grow, reaching $1,300 billion by 1992. Much of this debt has shifted particularly in the case of Africa - from private banks to the IMF and the World Bank themselves.