IMF austerity demands criticised at Bangkok meetings

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Bangkok on Friday as the IMF and World Bank held annual meetings, demanding that the institutions change how they deal with developing countries.

Protest organisers called for more focus on climate financing and tax reforms that help poorer citizens instead of pressure to cut subsidies and social spending. Coconut farmer Sombat Chuekrod, who travelled more than 200 kilometres to join the protest, said Thai people were already poor and asked the institutions not to make them poorer.

The demonstrations came as the IMF urged governments to cut spending and rebuild fiscal buffers after years of crisis spending and rising global debt. The IMF this week upgraded its world economic outlook, citing resilience in growth, but warned that gains were fragmented and that vulnerable countries were falling further behind.

Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar told AFP the world faced an "inequality emergency" and said fiscal consolidation would mean cuts to health, education and social security when people needed support. IMF deputy chief of research Petya Koeva Brooks told AFP vulnerable countries had no other choice but to address fiscal balances through spending cuts or higher revenues.

The UN Development Programme warned this week that cutting energy and food subsidies entirely could push 130 million people into poverty. Christina Segal-Knowles of the Rockefeller Foundation said developing countries faced "two bad options": taking on debt at high interest rates or making spending cuts that could undermine development goals.