Across Africa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents itself as the custodian of macroeconomic stability. Its latest Article IV staff reports on Ethiopia. Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia are written for economies with very different histories and institutions. Yet...

On 8 July 2025, the IMF published a brief blog post called ‘How to Stabilise Africa’s Debt’. The blog is only three pages long (one page shorter than the report upon which it is based). But even in its brevity, it repeats axioms...