The 1976 UK‐IMF crisis: The markets, the Americans, and the IMF

Abstract

This article examines the multiple levels of external pressures (structural, bilateral, and multilateral) that were brought to bear on British economic policy during the mid‐1970s. Specifically, it will be argued that in 1974 and early 1975, the Wilson‐Callaghan Labour government's domestic political imperatives set the direction of economic policy. By the middle of 1976, however, these had largely given way. External influences and pressures had become dominant and culminated in explicit economic policy constraints that were imposed upon the government in December 1976 through the mechanism of IMF (International Monetary Fund) loan conditionality.