The IMF Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) is an economic program of the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...
(IMF) involving financial aid to a member state in need of financial assistance, normally arising from a financial crisis. In return for aid, the economic program stipulates needed reforms in the recipient country aimed at bringing it back on a path of financial stability and economic sustainability. The SBA is a sub-set of IMF and
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
programs aimed at
Structural adjustment
Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) consist of loans (structural adjustment loans; SALs) provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to countries that experience economic crises. Their purpose is to adjust the co ...
.
Description
IMF’s Stand-By Arrangement was created in June 1952 to provide financing to countries requiring help with balance of payments problems. The SBA has often been used by member countries and is the dominant lending instrument of the IMF, especially for emerging market countries. After a significant pause in such aid, the financial crisis that erupted in 2008 resulted in a large number of countries requiring such financial assistance from the IMF. The financing terms are normally more advantageous than private markets offer. In 2009, the IMF upgraded the SBA "to be more flexible and responsive to members countries’ needs." At the same time, the borrowing limits were doubled and more funds were made available up front. Generally, the "conditions were streamlined and simplified."
Recipients
A number of countries have received an SBA during the
Late-2000s financial crisis, including
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...
,
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
.
Criticisms
For a long time, structural adjustment programs have been criticised for making excessive demands of austerity in the recipient country in return for financial aid. Such criticisms have been less pronounced in recent years, notably since 2009, when the IMF's SBA policies were modified to be more responsive to the recipient countries needs. An exception is perhaps Greece, which has been bordering on a
Sovereign debt crisis in 2010 and 2011. The resulting pronounced cutbacks in public spending have resulted in mass protests and riots. In this case, the criticism has been increasingly directed at the
requirements
In product development and process optimization, a requirement is a singular documented physical or functional need that a particular design, product or process aims to satisfy. It is commonly used in a formal sense in engineering design, inclu ...
of
Euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
membership, considering the large amount of financial aid also coming from other
Euro Area
The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU polic ...
countries, rather than an IMF standby arrangement.
"How the Euro Became Europe's Greatest Threat," Der Spiegel, 20 June 2011.
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See also
* European sovereign debt crisis
The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone memb ...
References
{{reflist
International Monetary Fund