austerity

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed and worsened the depth of inequality in West Africa. It has pushed millions into poverty. However, the pandemic offers West African governments a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest heavily in inequality-busting policies by boosting public spending, making tax systems more progressive, and tackling joblessness and precarious work.

West African governments are planning to “slash and burn” their way out of COVID-19 induced economic loss, reveals new analysis from Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) today. The organizations are calling for an urgent change of course as West African governments are preparing their annual budgets and participating in the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF, which are crucial discussions to focus the recovery on fighting inequality and poverty.

Lebanon is extremely unequal and has been rocked by massive protests in recent months. The country is facing a financial crisis and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about a potential bailout programme.

84 percent of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) COVID-19 loans encourage, and in some cases require, poor countries hard hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic to adopt more tough austerity measures in the aftermath of the health crisis, warned Oxfam today.

Poverty and inequality in Europe have reached shocking levels, according to a new Oxfam report.

Europe is facing unacceptable levels of poverty and inequality. This briefing paper reviews the current situation and presents recommendations to help put an end to poverty and extreme inequality in Europe.

The IMF has released a discussion note, authorized for distribution by chief economist Olivier Blanchard, on the damaging effect of income inequality on economic growth and supporting redistributiv

European austerity programs have dismantled the mechanisms that reduce inequality and enable equitable growth.

If left unchecked, austerity policies could put between 15 and 25 million more Europeans at risk of poverty by 2025, bringing the number of people at risk of poverty in Europe up to 146 million.