Publication

This paper examines how changes to the IMF’s practices during the euro crisis affect its preferred creditor status (PCS) — according to which distressed countries borrowing from the IMF are expected to give priority to meeting obligations to the IMF over those to other creditors. The author first provides a history of the PCS and then argues that changes to the PCS framework in its approval of lending to Greece in 2010 have left it significantly weakened.