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Category Archives: IMF

OFCs are out: bring back the term tax havens

17-Jul-08

The FT has reported that:

The distinction between “offshore” and “onshore” financial centres has been dropped by the International Monetary Fund, in a victory for more than 40 small countries that complained they had been unfairly stigmatised in the fight against financial crime.
The IMF said the distinction between on- and offshore centres “had been blurred by [...]

IMF says welcome back Keynes, all is forgiven

28-Jan-08

The FT has reported that:

The intensifying credit crunch is so severe that lower interest rates alone will not be enough “to get out of the turmoil we are in”, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned at the weekend.
In a dramatic volte face for an international body that as recently as [...]

The IMF are coming - let’s get the prosecutions rolling

02-Jan-08

The IMF is undertaking reviews of many offshore territories in 2008 with regard to their money laundering compliance.
Jersey is rolling out new legislation every few days as a result - which is sure evidence for me that external pressure works. And they have prosecuted one unqualified accountant for money laundering, which follows the normal pattern [...]

The IMF says aid needs rethinking

31-Jul-07

Nick Shaxson has written a first rate price on the TJN blog. He refers to IMF thinking on aid, just published, that says:

We find little robust evidence of a positive (or negative) relationship between aid inflows into a country and its economic growth. We also find no evidence that aid works better in better policy [...]

Darling - cheap jibes won’t do

22-Jul-07

Alistair Darling has given his first major interview to an accountancy paper, and has used it to tell Accountancy Age that:
claims that the UK was a tax shelter were seriously flawed’. ….[T]he IMF does not categorise the UK as a tax haven. This was suggested by some organisations on the back of some seriously flawed [...]

The UK is an offshore finance centre - according to an IMF study

19-Apr-07

The IMF have issued a working paper in the last few days with the headline grabbing title ‘Concept of Offshore Financial Centers: In Search of an Operational Definition’. As is usual in these cases the paper says the working paper only represents the views of its author, Ahmed Zoromé and should not be reported as [...]