The IMF and Tanzania

the dynamics of liberalisation

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The recent debate on the consequences of structural adjustment for developing economies, which took place between the World Bank and the United Nation's Economic Commission on Africa, underlines the need for further investigation of this important economic strategy. Tanzania, which for a decade had stood as a symbol of opposition to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies, signed a stand-by agreement with the funding organization in August 1986.This volume places the apparent policy reversal in the context of economic, political, and social changes in the 1980s, focusing on the nature and impact of the liberalization process. On the surface, liberalization encompassed price controls, devaluation of the currency, cuts in public expenditure, relaxation of foreign exchange controls, raising of interest rates, and removal of food subsidies--measures that appeared to depart from the egalitarian goals of "Ujamaa," Tanzania's brand of socialism. Contributors examine how the leadership in Tanzania implemented IMF conditionalities, thereby shifting the direction of the goals of the society. Drs. Campbell and Stein bring together research from the fields of anthropology, economics, politics, law, and education.