„Asian Way“ - An Alternative to Washington Consensus?

The Washington consensus, in its rudimentary form, consisted of 10 reforms that were supposed to help Latin American countries emerge from the crisis and lay the foundations for their future economic growth and development. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were assigned to conduct this program but they adapted it to their own neoliberalist beliefs. Such an amended Washington consensus was implemented in almost all developing countries and, as such, had unsatisfactory results. Economic growth (if there was any) was inadequate in order to start taking pace with the developed countries while issues of poverty, social inequalities and similar, were left unconcerned. The results were particularly poor in the transition countries, especially in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Many factors have contributed to the failure of the Washington Consensus, but far the greatest merits belong to the IMF. The collapse of the Washington consensus has led many international institutions and experts to try to detect new development policies. Today's economic strategies emphasize the importance of the role of the state, institutions and the social components. The countries of the so-called “East Asian Miracle” as well as China implemented reforms almost completely opposed to the Washington consensus and achieved historical results, which further discredits the IMF's development strategy.