A group of Jamaican intellectuals, led by political scientist Richard Crawford, is contending that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a better option for the country than it was in the past because of its adoption of softer lending conditions.

According to the group, Jamaicans United for Sustainable Development, the IMF has made critical changes out of the recognition that many of its loan conditions were oppressive and non-productive.

Crawford said that among the most important changes made by the IMF is its agreement to allow countries to develop their own formula for development. He indicated that the fund has already done this for countries, such as Belarus, Pakistan, El Salvador and Iceland.

"Jamaica, then, will have the opportunity to formulate its own programme with the IMF to suit our own special conditions," he said.

"The ownership of the programme naturally imposes special obligations on the country to make it work and, in this instance, Jamaica would not be able to blame the fund if it does not work," Crawford continued.

He claimed that the country would only need to indicate how it would deal with its current eight per cent and 20 per cent fiscal and current account deficits.

Fiscal space

Additionally, the group says the IMF no longer stops or interferes with social programmes being run by the government, as it did in some instances in the past. It now only insists that the country have the fiscal space within which to conduct the programmes.

"If assistance is required, the IMF has no objection to approaches by a country to its sister organisations, the IDB and World Bank," Crawford explained.

He added that the IMF also no longer sets preconditions for developing countries that want to enter into a relationship with the fund.

However, executive director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), Kim-Marie Spence, argues that while that may be so, there are still a number of things that are unclear about the IMF's new rules.

For instance, Spence points out, it is not clear how countries would qualify to benefit from new lending arrangements, such as the IMF's credit line for well-run emerging market economies.

"Is Jamaica in that category? I am not sure. We were thought of favourably and moving in the right direction before the crisis. However, our low growth rate, high debt-to-GDP ratio and consistent deficits make us bad candidates," she explained.

Spence pointed out that conditions would still be imposed on some countries. She also questioned whether new loans would have any conditions attached to them.

Spence said a number of the rules were vague and did not clearly state when it would become necessary for countries to implement structural reform or to ignore the recommendations of the IMF.

On its website, the IMF says structural-performance criteria have been discontinued for all loans, including loans for low-income countries. It, however, adds that structural reform would continue to be part of programmes it supports, particularly when they are believed to be critical to a country's recovery.