KIEP Blames IMF"s Program in Korea

The Korea Institute of Economic Planning(KIEP) blamed the International Monetary Fund's(IMF) program in a report released on February 13. The report states that the IMF's high interest policy actually deteriorated Korea's economic situation in terms of restoring financial stability and recovering from the recession.
The reported, titled 'The Evaluation of the IMF Bailout and Our Confrontation', also pinpointed that the IMF impatiently pushed quick restructuring moves without considering Korea's specific situation, and the imposition of strict monetary controls shackled businesses and corporations.
The report recommended that a reasonable retrenchment policy with low interest rates might have minimized the economic turbulence.
It also added that the IMF's intervention was not successful in Latin American nations during 1970-1980 or in Eastern Europe and Mexico in the 1990s.
This is the first time that a Korean research institute has openly attacked the IMF since Korea suffered the severe economic shock in late 1997.