Brazil’s Strange Reversal at the IMF
Brazil’s representative at the International Monetary Fund, Paulo Nogueira Batista, made waves this week when he loudly criticized the latest round of international funding for Greece. Nogueira Batista reportedly abstained when the fund’s executive board approved the latest installment of the IMF loan package. Now the story gets more complicated. The Financial Times is reporting ...
Brazil's representative at the International Monetary Fund, Paulo Nogueira Batista, made waves this week when he loudly criticized the latest round of international funding for Greece. Nogueira Batista reportedly abstained when the fund's executive board approved the latest installment of the IMF loan package. Now the story gets more complicated. The Financial Times is reporting that Nogueira Batista wasn't authorized to take the position he did (h/t Oliver Stuenkel):
Brazil’s representative at the International Monetary Fund, Paulo Nogueira Batista, made waves this week when he loudly criticized the latest round of international funding for Greece. Nogueira Batista reportedly abstained when the fund’s executive board approved the latest installment of the IMF loan package. Now the story gets more complicated. The Financial Times is reporting that Nogueira Batista wasn’t authorized to take the position he did (h/t Oliver Stuenkel):
Brazil reversed its hardline stance on Greece’s bailout on Thursday, saying it had not authorised its representative to the International Monetary Fund to withhold support for the latest aid to Athens.
Guido Mantega, the country’s finance minister, said it was a “mistake” for Brazil’s representative, Paulo Nogueira Batista, to abstain on the €1.8bn tranche of aid. Mr Mantega said he fully supported the IMF’s efforts to supply financial aid to Greece.
“[Mr Nogueira Batista] did not consult the government, nor was he authorised by us to vote in this manner and the finance minister has ordered him to return to Brazil immediately to explain himself,” Brazil’s finance ministry said on Thursday.
The article speculates that Brazilian bureaucratic politics may explain the dramatic volte-face, but it’s also possible that the IMF’s odd system of national representation is to blame. Most executive directors on the fund’s board represent groups of countries. While selected by Brazil, Nogueira Batista actually speaks for — and, in theory, takes direction from — a group of countries that includes Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. Only the United States, Japan, Germany, France, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have executive directors of their own.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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