Top central bank official blasts International Monetary Fund

A top Czech central bank official launched a hard-hitting attack on Friday against the International Monetary Fund and its director general, accusing them of stoking up the financial crisis in Eastern Europe. The vice governor of the bank, Mojmir Hampl, told the newspaper Der Standard that the IMF had made an erroneous interpretation which then had to be corrected after the central bank intervened. In the interview he told the paper that it was the IMF which accelerated the crisis, calling it “a considered attempt to lead an entire region into a situation where it needed saving.” He also said that with the crisis the fund had found "a new field of action" and so received extra financial resources.