The International Monetary Fund and Latin America: Relations after the COVID-19 Pandemic

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the growing financing needs, and the consequent deterioration of public finances in many countries have created a propitious scenario for the return of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Latin America after almost a decade and a half of their estrangement. This paper aims at analyzing the relationship between the organization and the region in the context of the coronavirus. We seek to understand to what extent their renewed relations will mirror the IMF's "oldfashioned" preferences that have characterized its interventions during the last two decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. For this purpose, we first examine the Fund's official position, reflected in its flagship publications. We affirm that the institution, in its discourse, is increasingly permissive with the use of fiscal stimulus and the State's leading role in crisis resolution. Second, we confront the IMF's rhetoric with its practices, reflected in conditionality and policy recommendations contained in specific agreements signed with Latin American countries in the context of the current crisis. We conclude that the orthodox approach persists in the IMF's practices, but is accompanied by growing adaptive changes.