The Run Up To The Great Recession: Lessons From The IMF Experience

The Institute for Government hosted a private roundtable meeting with Ruben Lamdany, to discuss the factors highlighted in the IMF's report, lessons learned for government and other institutions, as well as the role of evaluation in government more generally.

John Gieve, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee until 2009 responded to Ruben's presentation from a UK perspective. The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

The IMF has been one of the first institutions to carry out a thorough-going review of its own performance in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Ruben Lamdany, Deputy Director of the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office, led the review. Some of the factors the report highlighted include: a failure to address global current account imbalances; groupthink; intellectual capture and a climate in which it was difficult to ‘speak truth to power'.

More information

Read the full copy of the IMF's report IMF Performance in the Run-Up to the Financial and Economic Crisis IMF Surveillance in 2004-07.