Such reforms should be ambitious and broad-ranging, encompassing product markets, including network industries, labour markets and the modernisation of public administration. To support employment, wagesetting should become more flexible and better aligned with productivity. These reforms will help countries in their efforts to regain competitiveness, set the foundations for sustainable growth and support the return of macroeconomic confidence.
As for Europe 50 years ago, an important precondition for growth to take off is the stabilisation of prices and, after an initial adjustment, the exchange rate. This has been the purview of the IMF in its adjustment programs, which through the extension of credits has somewhat facilitated the adoption of painful economic policies.