Lending less than meets the eye

Washington’s battles with big budget deficits may seem like a distant memory, but a familiar refrain from those days has taken on new meaning for the IMF. “Less is more” has been a powerful, if unstated, theme running through many Fund-led packages, ever since the Mexican peso crisis of 1994-95.

The size of these programmes continues to astound: $58.4 billion for Korea, $36.1 billion for Indonesia and $17.2 billion for Thailand all in one fell swoop when the Asian crisis hit bottom.