IMF AND EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS DURING THE SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS

While the European Sovereign Debt crisis presented unprecedented challenges to the European institutions in addressing the vulnerabilities of its financial sector, it gave rise to the effective cooperation between the European Commissions, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), collectively known as the Troika. This paper reviews the interactions between the IMF and the euro area official lenders in three programme countries: Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. A close examination of the lending terms changes revealed an evolving understanding of the crisis by the European institutions. This paper analyzes the impact that the IMF had on the lending term changes to enrich a better understanding of the evolution of the European crisis management framework.