Washington Consensus

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a term coined by economist John Williamson in 1989 to describe the set of market-oriented economic policy reforms that institutions based in Washington — the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and US Treasury — considered essential for developing countries seeking to overcome economic crises and achieve sustainable growth; the ten core policies included fiscal discipline, reordering of public expenditure priorities, tax reform, interest rate liberalisation, competitive exchange rates, trade liberalisation, liberalisation of inward foreign direct investment, privatisation, deregulation, and property rights; the Washington Consensus became the template for structural adjustment programmes imposed as conditions of IMF and World Bank lending during the 1980s and 1990s, with contentious results that generated both economic stabilisation and severe social pain in many countries