On Friday, July 9, dr. Neven Mates, Chief Advisor to the Governor of Croatian National Bank, has presented the guest lecture "Recent International Monetary Fund Programs in EU" as part of International Macroeconomics course.
Previously, he has held managerial positions in the IMF European Department, has led IMF missions and program negotiations in emerging market economies of Central and Eastern Europe, and has been the Head of the IMF Moscow Office.
He talked about the the IMF policy changes over the years, that started with Strauss-Kahn's turnaround in discretionary fiscal relaxation that allowed countries to increase spending, and continued with further softening of Fund conditionality that allowed funds to be used to finance budget deficits. He described the recent cases of internal devaluation programs in Latvia and Greece.
The lecture was followed by Q&A.
