Thirty-five civil society organisations have today signed a declaration rejecting the IMF austerity policies implemented in Ecuador, Argentina and Haiti and raising the following social and economic concerns which are now evident in both policy and practice in the countries:

• Regressive tax reforms implemented within an unjust global tax framework infringe the rights of populations, benefiting large corporations and enabling capital flight
• Reforms favoring labor flexibilisation are measures that result in casualisation of work, poor labor conditions and the erosion of workers’ rights
• Subsidy cuts directly affect the most vulnerable sectors of the population whilst set against a regime of tax incentives most often designed to support the interests of the corporate sector over and above the interests of the public good
• Major economic problems are not resolved with large debts that countries will not be able to repay
• The current global financial architecture creates an unfair debt restructuring process
• The IMF’s criteria for exchange rate and monetary policy, and its implementation by Central Banks, benefits holders of significant pools of private capital
• Austerity policies trigger a serious deterioration in the living conditions of populations and a consequent increase in poverty, inequalities and social exclusion, and undermine the ambition reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals

Download the complete declaration.