The International Monetary Fund decided at a meeting this week that conditions are right to end its Icelandic financial revival programme on schedule at the end of this month. The final tranche of funding was also approved by the board.
Unemployment is still high in Iceland, but the rate increased slower than had been feared and has not been lower since before the banking crash, Icelandic government ministers explained at a press conference. The programme of co-operation between the IMF and the Icelandic government is now officially at an end, Visir.is reported.
The end of the programme means not only that loan payments to Iceland are now complete and no further IMF funding is expected; it also means that the IMF’s permanent presence in Reykjavik and its strong influence on government policy will also come to an end.
The ministers continued that as well as lowering unemployment, Icelanders’ domestic purchasing power is also increasing again and has not been higher since the crash.
According to the government, Iceland’s co-operation with the IMF has strongly emphasised the achievement of results in core areas. Financial stability has been regained. The financial sector has been revived and restructured. State finances have been stabilised through spending cuts and tax rises and the state’s increasing renewed respectability on international markets has been illustrated by June’s successful bond issue, ministers say.
‘In Haiti “the IMF and World Bank blocked the government from raising the minimum wage and then demanded the privatization of profitable public companies which generated revenue for desperately needed services. The IMF insisted that Haiti should cut government services by half, in spite of a national shortage of teachers and health care workers, a life expectancy of 49 years for men and 53 years for women, 45% literacy and infant mortality running at nearly 10%.”‘
http://www.socialistalternative.org/literature/imfwb/introduction.html
And I could go on and on, but Icenews probably won’t publish this anyway. Just let me say that the people of Cuba often look to their neighboring island of Hispaniola and say to themselves, ‘Thank God we didn’t surrender to the American agenda!’
Since my last comment was ‘lost in the mail’, just let me add these two links on the real structure and purpose of the the IMF and World Bank.
This one for the suffering they cause:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-real-scandal-at-the-world-bank-446236.html
and this one for how they do it:
http://www.xat.org/xat/worldbank.html
They are controlled by private bankers who are in it to make huge profits on the poor nations of the world and to influence policy in order to tie up public assets for private corporate profit.
For those who think the Word Bank/IMF is some kind of international charity:
‘Nations borrow Special Drawing Right from the International Monetary Fund in order to pay interest on their mounting debts. With these SDR’s produced at no cost, the IMF charges more interest. This contrary to bold claims does not alleviate poverty or further any development. It just creates a steady flow of wealth from borrowing nations to the money changers who now control the IMF and the World Bank.’
http://www.xat.org/xat/worldbank.html
and it goes on:
‘The permanent debt of Third World Countries is constantly being increased to provide temporary relief from the poverty being caused by previous borrowing.
These repayments already exceed the amount of new loans. By 1992 Africa’s debt had reached $290 billion dollars, which is two and a half times greater than it was in 1980. A noble attempt to repay it has caused increased infant mortality and unemployment, plus deteriorating schools, and general health and welfare problems.’
But I don’t have to tell you this as it is easy to google world bank or imf, weed out the corporate fairy tales and find the real suffering they cause. To poor people like you and me. Some real life examples of what the IMF stands for:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-real-scandal-at-the-world-bank-446236.html
Something is very wrong with a world banking system which portends to help the poor while it actually steals their resources and even their right to drink clean water.
So who owns the IMF? Here is the answer:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080810173158AADA1Fh
They have taken as much as they possibly can from Iceland and Iceland is well rid of them. If you google their ‘helping’ small economies like Iceland you will see that they often cause bankruptcy, riots and poverty. They always privatize the assets which should belong to the people who live there, then raise the prices for electricity, fuel, health care and even water! They are a private corporation without morals or decency of any kind. Like all other private bankers they live on usury and act like vampires. Where do they get the collateral to create their money? They use your countries resources. My question is, why doesn’t Iceland (and every other ‘free’ country in the world) use its own resources for collateral for its own bank. International banking has been a Jewish scam for centuries and the sooner we are all rid of them the better. Don’t believe me? Check out this link:
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/wildbankers.php
Scroll down the page a little to the article and see how bankers have been ripping us off for centuries.
BTW People look up to Iceland for the hope it gives the rest of us. You may not have got it exactly right, but we are all under the thumb of international bankers and want to believe that at least *somebody* beat them. It doesn’t even matter if it’s true, I have looked at sites where ordinary Icelanders go to fight against big banks. Their spelling may not be as good as the banker hired shills who go there to combat them, but the majority of US know who is right. Because we, like you, have suffered enough from the age old schemes of the truly incredibly rich and corrupt. Go Iceland! I campaign all the time in Canada for public banks to finance public debt, because the huge advantage is that interest on money invested in your own country is returned right to you. All private usurious banking is a scam. They have destroyed America, Great Britain, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and on and on. It will never stop until public debt is controlled by public banks. Private banks and transnational corporations are THE reason the world economy is going down the tubes. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
Handing over to E.U. ….