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VIRTUAL DATA EXHIBIT
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Welcome to the End Austerity in Asia Pacific Virtual Data Exhibit! Now, everyone can access the data exhibit in a virtual format. This page contains data and numbers that represent the impacts, history, and alternatives to austerity.
You can browse the entire exhibit by scrolling down or by jumping to specific sections by clicking the title beside. If you’re also interested in holding an in-person exhibition, you can go to the official campaign website to register, access, and print the files.
The effects of austerity reverberate the most among marginalized sectors of society.
To expand the shrinking gap between a country’s revenue and debt, governments are imposing a reduction on public spending, which affects basic social services such as education, health, pension, and water. Meanwhile, debt distress in Asia Pacific continues to exacerbate existing inequalities, plunge fragile economies, and derail overall development, especially in countries which have shown a continuous rise in government debt since 2008. International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have leveraged fiscal power to impose their interests as well as donor countries’ across development projects in the region. These aid-dependent structures inflicted on developing countries to finance development place them in a vulnerable spot, exposing Asia Pacific peoples to further marginalization through increasing taxes, cutting back social services, and poverty-inducing inflation. The perpetual imposition of aid and debt conditionalities on Southern economies influences national policies at the expense of people’s rights and sovereignty.
End Austerity in Asia Pacific exhibit aims to raise people’s awareness on the impacts of austerity measures and mobilize them by resisting donor countries’ and IFIs’ interests that enable corporate control of development and of national policies, as well as pushing for alternatives.
What is austerity?
Austerity is a macroeconomic policy aimed at reducing budget deficits by managing debts and controlling public spending, often implemented by governments during economic downturns or debt crises.
Austerity and debt
The mounting debt of countries from IFIs gives the latter the upper hand in imposing conditionalities and austerity measures on the former. Governments are forced, yet sometimes complicit, in slashing public spending, which affects subsidies and benefits for the people, to adhere to the agreement with IFIs. As a result, marginalized sectors of society are left with no choice but to endure increases in taxes and a lack of social services.
Austerity Measures
(1) elimination or reduction of subsidies, on fuel and energy, electricity, food products and agriculture inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and pesticides;
(2) wage bill cuts or caps on salaries of education, health and other public sector workers;
(3) rationalizing safety nets and welfare benefits via revising eligibility and further targeting to the poorest;
(4) pension reforms such as raising contribution rates, delaying the retirement age and lowering benefits;
(5) labor market reforms, specifically, restraining the minimum wage, limiting salary adjustments to cost of living standards, decentralizing collective bargaining, relaxing dismissal regulations and enabling temporary/ atypical contracts to hire workers; and
(6) healthcare reforms, in the form of raising fees for patients and introducing cost-cutting measures in public healthcare centers.
(7) the introduction of new, or the expansion of already existing, consumption taxes on goods and services, like value added taxes;
(8) the privatization of government assets and services; and
(9) the strengthening public-private partnerships.
Asia Pacific in Numbers
Austerity in Asia Pacific:
A Timeline
SOUTHEAST ASIA
1984
The Philippines increased its taxes by as much as 8-10% to satisfy IMF conditionalities for a $650 million loan which propelled workers in the labor market to demand a higher wage. In the same year, the national government reduced country’s budget by 5%.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
1992
The conditionalities from a 1988 IMF loan propelled the Algeria Food Crisis as the country reduced their food subsidies to 2.3% (subsidy-to-GDP ratio) from 5% ratio a year before.
PACIFIC
2000
Australia increased its defense spending by 47% to strengthen its alliance with the United States and its participation in international military operations despite facing budget constraints.
EAST ASIA
2017
In Japan, 2 out of 3 low-income households relying on public assistance suffered from the 5% reduction in public benefits
SOUTH ASIA
2020
Sri Lanka faced foreign debt crisis during and post-pandemic. Increase in taxes, elimination of subsidies, and cutting public spending caused food insecurity where women were primarily affected.
1 out of 3 households were food insecure
Almost 50% of children aged under 5 faced malnutrition
THE FUTURE
Asia Pacific Debt
The region continues to succumb to insurmountable debt due to conflicts, wars, economic instability, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. IFIs remain culprits to the increasing public debt of Asia Pacific. Prevalent financing efforts intended to aid countries through loans plunge them further into a more distressing state. This visualization provides an overview of the Asia-Pacific’s debt situation. It maps out the debt-to-GDP ratio, a measurement of a country’s vulnerability to economic and political shocks as well as its ability to pay its debt, with a threshold around 60–70%.
Austerity Impacts
The bar graph represents the prevalence of each austerity measure in Asia Pacific countries. It attempts to show which of the austerity measures are the most prevalent through data from reports and similar campaigns. The X axis represents the number of countries implementing (or planning to implement) a particular austerity policy, while the Y axis lists down the measures.
IMPACT ON WOMEN
IMPACT ON LABOR WORKERS
Asian Development Bank
The data shows the bank’s role in fiscal management and the policies of their developing member countries. In the bank’s project dataset from 2005-2023, over 50 projects worth USD 3 billion were found dealing with fiscal reforms, fiscal management, fiscal governance, debt management, etc.
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund, or IMF, has been notorious for imposing austerity policies, which is just another ploy to sustain neoliberal objectives that prioritize free markets over tackling and addressing major socio-economic crises plaguing the region.
Budget and Allocation
Asia-Pacific governments overtly choose to cut public spending, including those on social services and subsidies that are crucial to people’s development, in order to contain deficits between a country’s debt and income. The visualization below shows alternative revenue sources—domestic resource mobilization, wealth tax, and defense budget—to address issues of intensifying poverty, a lack of education, and inaccessible healthcare.
*In billions: $1.39 – Central Asia, 98.27 – South Asia, 396.94 – Northeast Asia, 43.06 – Southeast Asia, 35. 29 – Oceania, 184.13 – Middle East, and 19.06 (North Africa)
