When asked on Friday about Mussa's remarks, World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz shot back. "I wasn't even smoking," Stiglitz told reporters. "He hasn't looked at the econometric evidence and statistical evidence on this... We go through both the theory and the evidence on the issue and you'll see that Mussa's wrong." The IMF has taken some heat from Stiglitz and other economists over the last year for its policies inAsia. The IMF initially urged the one-time tiger economies hit by the crisis to raise interest rates and run budget surpluses. But the IMF has eased those demands in recent months clearing the way for more social spending for the poor.

The rift between sister institutions became obvious in January, when Stiglitz told the Wall Street Journal: "One ought to focus... On things that caused the crisis, not on things that make it more difficult to deal with." In March Stiglitz said the IMF had "overstepped the bounds" by insisting in its reform programme for South Korea that the nation's central bank focus exclusively on price stability.