New SAC-M Briefing Paper: Breaking Myanmar’s Military-Money Nexus by Sean Turnell

11 February 2025: The Myanmar military’s stranglehold on Myanmar’s economy must be broken, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M). A briefing paper written by esteemed economist Sean Turnell, published today by SAC-M, outlines the process for de-militarising Myanmar’s public finances. It also proposes immediate actions that the international community must take to support the Myanmar people in building a prosperous economy for a new, federal democratic Myanmar.

For decades, the Myanmar military has used its position at the centre of the national economy to sustain its brutal oppression of the population and to shield its leaders from accountability. Following its attempted coup on 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military junta removed all traces of civilian oversight over the country’s finances, extended its domination of state financial institutions and implemented a series of disastrous fiscal measures to fuel its full-scale war against the Myanmar people.