IMF economist slams Fund over failure on euro zone

A veteran economist who resigned from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has accused the global lender of suppressing information on difficulties in dealing with the global financial meltdown and euro zone crisis.

In his resignation letter to the IMF's board and senior staff, dated 18 June, Peter Doyle said the failure of the lender in issuing timely warnings for both the 2007-2009 global financial crisis and the euro zone crisis were a failing in the first order and are, if anything, becoming more deeply entrenched.

His letter has brought into the open tensions within the IMF over the Fund's credibility, which many worried, was threatened by its role in the euro zone crisis. A report in the Financial Express, which quoted IMF insiders as saying that there were concerns that the Fund had over-stretched by lending to Europe without exercising the same level of independence it would normally apply in bailouts to emerging economies.

Doyle, who was a division chief for Sweden, Denmark and Israel in the IMF's European Department at the time he resigned, also accused the Fund's leadership of being tainted by a selection process that ensured a European always made it to the top post.

According to Doyle, IMF had been playing catch-up and reactive roles in the last-ditch efforts to save the euro zone from the brink. The lender is also part of a troika of international lenders, which includes, the European Commission and European Central Bank, involved in rescue loans to Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Doyle's attack comes as concerns grow over the fund's stringent austerity measures for debtor nations that are increasingly being seen as doing more harm than good whilst failing to contain a crisis that was now well into its third year.