The IMF has been much criticised for the tight fiscal and monetary policy (eg.
Sachs 1997). Certainly, if the IMF had got the economic scenario closer to what subsequently
happened, it would have made sense to have a much easier fiscal stance, particularly for
social safety net programs. The fact that it continued to underestimate the severity of the
ensuing recession almost up to the end of 1998 (table 4) meant that the easing of the fiscal
target occurred fairly slowly. Taken in conjunction with substantial time lags for fiscal
targets to be translated into actual spending due to normal administrative lags, the cushioning
of the social impacts was not very effective.