Following on from Doug Haywood's recent posting about possible changes at the World Bank, todays FT reports that the IBD appears to be distancing itself from the neoliberal line it adopted in the mid-80s. According to the FT: 'The Inter-American Development Bank's most closely watched annual review has been delayed for a second succesive year because of an internal controversy over its contents. A memorandum made available to the FT shows that at a July committe meeting to discuss the report, the authors were asked to make significant changes to it. They asked for the report to be revised to make it less definitive and more practical in its conclusions. The committee, of which the bank's president, Mr Enrique Iglesias, is a member, recommended among other things that a chapter on privatisation should be adjusted "with the object of reducing its excessively doctinniar tone." A section on finance should be re-examined to avoid "an unnecessarily neo-liberal tone."' The FT also carries details of a report to be published in March, in which the IBD's chief economist will argue that saving follows growth, and not the other way round. Trevor Evans Paul LIncke Ufer 44 10999 Berlin Tel. 49 30 612 3951 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
