🥀In memory of Anwar Shaikh. He passed away this month, on October 6, leaving behind an intellectual legacy that will endure for generations, and a boundless enthusiasm for ideas that touched everyone who got to know him or took his classes. Read obituary by Martin Abeles, IDEAs: go.networkideas.org/4eiMWli

Since 2025, @WorldBankGroup has classified Costa Rica as a high-income economy, and since 2023 it has recorded one of the highest GDP growth rates among @OECD member countries. However, behind this confident image and strong economic performance lies a series of deep fractures that threaten many of the very features that have made Costa Rica so exceptional. These fault lines are the product of decades of uneven growth under a development model promoted by the Global North under the banner of export diversification. Read commentary by Valeria Jiménez of @TrinityCollege: go.networkideas.org/4yutEk3

IMF surcharges help fund the IMF by covering lending, intermediation costs, accumulating financial reserves and managing risk. Austerity in the Global South should not fuel the institutional functioning of @IMFNews.

On 25 October 2026, 🇧🇷Brazil will decide which model of economic and social development it wishes to follow over the next four years. On the one hand, candidate @LulaOficial is seeking a fourth presidential term with the aim of consolidating and extending his developmentalist policies. In contrast, @FlavioBolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, is striving to become president for the first time, seeking to revive and deepen his father’s conservative agenda. Read news analysis by Julia Leal of PEPI-@ufrj: go.networkideas.org/4z0U0eL

❓What is the relation between private debt, dollarisation and climate change? See blog by @cpc01 and @farwasial: go.networkideas.org/4ARtINa

📌Event via Zoom: IDEAs Political Economy Reading Circle 📚Topic: "Celso Furtado: Underdevelopment, ecological limits, and power in Latin America’s radical economic and social transformation" 🎓Guided by: Monika Meireles 🗓Schedule: 6, 13 & 20 November at 6-8pm, UTC -3 🗣Main language: Spanish, with AI-generated translated text for other languages 🔔Register by 4 November: go.networkideas.org/4cdYO7p The IDEAs Political Economy Reading Circle (PERC) is a new online initiative that brings together Latin American and Caribbean students and researchers for collective reading, discussion, and critical exchange on key thinkers in political economy. Next month, Monika Meireles of @Economicas_UNAM will guide a three-session workshop on the author Celso Furtado, with participants expected to read selected materials in advance and to engage in the discussions.

🌎Countries do not have to be a part of the IMF programme to be impacted by IMF policy prescription. See evidence from IDEAs Latin America monitor: go.networkideas.org/4qh6wmE

📌IDEAs independent panel on the IMF in Asia and Latin America: debt distress is a reality in more than half of the 68 low-income countries eligible for the International Monetary Fund’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, but the very concept of low-income countries is linear. More about the panel: go.networkideas.org/4ADKvDk

"Debt swaps should not be promoted as debt restructuring instruments. They are a fundamentally different approach to the dilemma of sovereign debt in the Global South. Debt swaps are transactional debt conversion instruments that are often complex and involve significant amount of public subsidy and constraints on policy space without necessarily corresponding gains in fiscal headroom in developing countries. The current lure of debt swaps for Global South countries as enablers of debt relief is a misrepresentation of what these instruments actually do." Read commentary by Celine Tan, @farwasial and Arınç Onat Kılıç on debt swaps and the fiction of debt relief: go.networkideas.org/4B9mzbl

**TODAY AT 9:30 (BANGKOK TIME)** 📌 Panel event: “@IMFNews in Asia & Latin America: Historical & contemporary reckoning”. Read: go.networkideas.org/4ADKvDk 🗓 Schedule: 14 Oct, 9:30-13:15 (Bangkok time) ✋🏼 Participation mode: Hybrid * go.networkideas.org/4h8hEhM - join via Zoom, or * forms.gle/NjK2it47UMBJSjSu6 - RSVP to attend in person at Crowne Plaza Bangkok Lumpini Park #IMFMeetings #WBGMeetings

From today's panel "The IMF & imperialism: New developments in Asia" at the People's Assembly, with IDEAs, @cfa_ind & @focussouth. 🙏Thanks to @AsianPeoplesMvt for hosting. @IMFNews #IMFMeetings #WBGmeetings

💬For decades, a remarkably resilient narrative has structured policy discourse within @UN system, @IMFNews, @WorldBankGroup & finance ministries across Global South: the assertion that “there is no money”. The presumption of fiscal scarcity constitutes conceptual foundation of what has come to be known, in the language of development policy technocracy, as domestic resource mobilisation. Read @redgenkosi's blog on why “mobilising” domestic resources does not finance development & what to do instead: go.networkideas.org/4B4ff0C

**TOMORROW MORNING AT 9:30 (BANGKOK TIME)** 📌 Panel event: “@IMFNews in Asia & Latin America: Historical & contemporary reckoning”. More: go.networkideas.org/4ADKvDk 🗓 Sched: 14 Oct, 9:30-13:15 (Bangkok time) ✋🏼 Participation mode: Hybrid * forms.gle/NjK2it47UMBJSjSu6 - RSVP via link to attend in person at Crowne Plaza Bangkok Lumpini Park, or * go.networkideas.org/4h8hEhM - Bookmark link for Zoom session #IMFMeetings #WBGMeetings

**TODAY AT 9AM (THAILAND TIME)** IDEAs-@ActionAid panel: "A new transition in Vietnam? Manoeuvring the new protectionism" Venue: Novotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20 📌If you're joining the event, RSVP by scanning the QR code or through this link: go.networkideas.org/4e2NADl #IMFMeetings #WBGMeetings

“Over the past decade, many Latin American and Caribbean countries internalized IMF-style policy discipline without having active International Monetary Fund programs, producing fragile stagnation—and an opening for the Fund to swoop back in. This could end up helping the United States reassert its dominance over the region." -- Martin Abeles via @ProSyn: bit.ly/3Uqok3j 📌Learn more about @IMFNews indebtedness in Asia & Latin America by joining our hybrid panel event (in person or via Zoom) on 14 Oct at 9:30 Bangkok time. More: go.networkideas.org/4ADKvDk #WBGmeetings #IMFMeetings