Developing countries 'skeptical' of World Bank, IMF

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have come under attack from developing countries which accuse the two institutions of defending major powers.

The emerging countries which have come together to establish a rival institution known as the New Development Bank do not understand why Americans and Europeans always pick up key roles at the IMF and World Bank.

“The change in these institutions is slower than expected and perhaps the expectations that they will change has been reduced compared to what it was say in the middle of the 2008-2009 crisis when it looked to us like there was a true intention to reform the IMF, reform the World Bank. We are perhaps more skeptical, we emerging market countries are perhaps more skeptical of this prospect of change,” Paulo Nogueira Batista, vice president of the New Development Bank said.

The New Development Bank was set up in July 2015 with the objective of countering the under representation of emerging countries in major economic institutions. Its leaders accuse the World Bank and the IMF of encouraging protectionist policies in Europe and the United States.

“They are fundamentally institutions that reflect the point of view, the interests, the ideologies of the North Atlantic powers – the Europeans on the one hand, the Americans on the other. These are the main factors in the institutions and the elites in these countries, in my opinion, they are giving….they are having difficulty in facing up to the challenges of the current situation, and they are losing trust,” Batista added.

The criticisms are emerging at a time when the IMF and World Bank are holding their annual assembly in Washington with Jim Yong Kim and Christine Lagarde maintaining their leadership of the World Bank and IMF respectively.