India, Sept. 11 -- The scale of austerity demanded under International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes has risen sharply over the past decade, with Oxfam warning that proposed changes could lead to even deeper public spending cuts.
Four-fold rise in fiscal cuts
Oxfam's analysis found that median annual austerity requirements for IMF borrowing countries increased from 0.21% of GDP between 2012 and 2017 to 0.85% between 2018 and 2025. The organisation said this represents a four-fold increase in budget-balance targets.
Between 2018 and 2025, 25 of 54 countries were required to reduce public spending by more than 2% of GDP during their programmes. In the earlier period, that figure stood at 12 of 42 countries.
Social spending protection wea...