Another reason is that the EU (ECB, Council, Commission) public discussion focused on debt service and budget cuts rather than the substance of the "reforms" enforced at gunpoint, and not just the IMF research division but the IMF top leadership was more flexible on that. Then again, Poul Thomsen and his fellow IMF bureaucrats would never have been able to exert the level of influence they have without the perpetuation of the depression by the austerians, so making the IMF worse than the others is wrong too.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}