CATEGORIES:
BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism
Technical assistance and trainingOverview The IMF works to foster global growth and economic stability. It provides policy advice and financing to members in economic difficulties and also works with developing nations to help them achieve macroeconomic stability and reduce poverty. ? What we do ? How we do it ? Membership ?Collaborating with others What we do Highlights of this section: ? Key IMF Activities ? Original Aims ? Adapting to Change With its near-global membership of 188 countries, the IMF is uniquely placed to help member governments take advantage of the opportunities?and manage the challenges?posed by globalization and economic development more generally. The IMF tracks global economic trends and performance, alerts its member countries when it sees problems on the horizon, provides a forum for policy dialogue, and passes on know-how to governments on how to tackle economic difficulties. The IMF provides policy advice and financing to members in economic difficulties and also works with developing nations to help them achieve macroeconomic stability and reduce poverty. Marked by massive movements of capital and abrupt shifts in comparative advantage,globalization affects countries' policy choices in many areas, including labor, trade, and tax policies. Helping a country benefit from globalization while avoiding potential downsides is an important task for the IMF. The global economic crisis has highlighted just how interconnected countries have become in today?s world economy.
Key IMF activities The IMF supports its membership by providing
IMF and the global financial crisis Click here to read about our work in crisis countries
Original aims The IMF was founded more than 60 years ago toward the end of World War II (see History). The founders aimed to build a framework for economic cooperation that would avoid a repetition of the disastrous economic policies that had contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the global conflict that followed. Since then the world has changed dramatically, bringing extensive prosperity and lifting millions out of poverty, especially in Asia. In many ways the IMF's main purpose?to provide the global public good of financial stability?is the same today as it was when the organization was established. More specifically, the IMF continues to
Video (11:38). In this short film, we hear about the IMF and its role during the global economic crisis that brought the world economy to its knees.
An adapting IMF The IMF has evolved along with the global economy throughout its 65-year history, allowing the organization to retain its central role within the international financial architecture As the world economy struggles to restore growth and jobs after the worst crisis since the Great Depression, the IMF has emerged as a very different institution. During the crisis, it mobilized on many fronts to support its member countries. It increased its lending, used its cross-country experience to advise on policy solutions, supported global policy coordination, and reformed the way it makes decisions. The result is an institution that is more in tune with the needs of its 188 member countries.
How we do it Highlights of this section: ? Economic and Financial Surveillance ? Technical Assistance and Training ? IMF Lending ? Research and Data The IMF?s main goal is to ensure the stability of the international monetary and financial system. It helps resolve crises, and works with its member countries to promote growth and alleviate poverty. It has three main tools at its disposal to carry out its mandate: surveillance, technical assistance and training, and lending. These functions are underpinned by the IMF?s research and statistics. Surveillance The IMF promotes economic stability and global growth by encouraging countries to adopt sound economic and financial policies. To do this, it regularly monitors global, regional, and national economic developments. It also seeks to assess the impact of the policies of individual countries on other economies. This process of monitoring and discussing countries? economic and financial policies is known as bilateral surveillance. On a regular basis?usually once each year?the IMF conducts in depth appraisals of each member country?s economic situation. It discusses with the country?s authorities the policies that are most conducive to a stable and prosperous economy, drawing on experience across its membership. Member countries may agree to publish the IMF?s assessment of their economies, with the vast majority of countries opting to do so. The IMF also carries out extensive analysis of global and regional economic trends, known as multilateral surveillance. Its key outputs are three semiannual publications, the World Economic Outlook, the Global Financial Stability Report, and the Fiscal Monitor. The IMF also publishes a series of regional economic outlooks. The IMF recently agreed on a series of actions to enhance multilateral, financial, and bilateral surveillance, including to better integrate the three; improve our understanding of spillovers and the assessment of emerging and potential risks; and strengthen IMF policy advice. For more information on how the IMF monitors economies, go to Surveillance in the Our Worksection. Technical assistance and training IMF offers technical assistance and training to help member countries strengthen their capacity to design and implement effective policies. Technical assistance is offered in several areas, including fiscal policy, monetary and exchange rate policies, banking and financial system supervision and regulation, and statistics. The IMF provides technical assistance and training mainly in four areas:
For more on technical assistance, go to Technical Assistance in the Our Work section. Lending IMF financing provides member countries the breathing room they need to correct balance of payments problems. A policy program supported by financing is designed by the national authorities in close cooperation with the IMF. Continued financial support isconditional on the effective implementation of this program. In the most recent reforms, IMF lending instruments were improved further to provideflexible crisis prevention tools to a broad range of members with sound fundamentals, policies, and institutional policy frameworks. In low-income countries, the IMF has doubled loan access limits and is boosting its lending to the world?s poorer countries, with loans at a concessional interest rate. For more on different types of IMF lending, go to Lending in the Our Work section. Research and data Supporting all three of these activities is the IMF?s economic and financial research andstatistics. In recent years, the IMF has applied both its surveillance and technical assistance work to the development of standards and codes of good practice in its areas of responsibility, and to the strengthening of financial sectors. These are part of the IMF?s continuing efforts to strengthen national and global financial systems and improve its ability to prevent and resolve crises.
The IMF's main business The IMF?s job is to promote a stable international monetary system, in which member countries can achieve high rates of employment, low inflation, and sustainable economic growth. The IMF does this by:
Membership Highlights of this section: ? Number of Members ? How Countries Become Members ? What Is a Quota and How Is It Determined? ? The Functions of Quota The IMF currently has a near-global membership of 188 countries. To become a member, a country must apply and then be accepted by a majority of the existing members. In April 2012, Republic of South Sudan joined the IMF, becoming the institution's 188th member. Upon joining, each member country of the IMF is assigned a quota, based broadly on its relative size in the world economy. The IMF's membership agreed in November 2010 on a major overhaul of its quota system to reflect the changing global economic realities, especially the increased weight of major emerging markets in the global economy. A member country's quota defines its financial and organizational relationship with the IMF, including: Subscriptions A member country's quota subscription determines the maximum amount of financial resources the country is obliged to provide to the IMF. A country must pay its subscription in full upon joining the IMF: up to 25 percent must be paid in the IMF's own currency, called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) or widely accepted currencies (such as the dollar, the euro, the yen, or pound sterling), while the rest is paid in the member's own currency. Voting power The quota largely determines a member's voting power in IMF decisions. Each IMF member's votes are comprised of basic votes plus one additional vote for each SDR 100,000 of quota. The number of basic votes attributed to each member is calculated as 5.502 percent of total votes. Accordingly, the United States has 421,965 votes (16.76 percent of the total), and Tuvalu has 759 votes (0.03 percent of the total). Date: 2016-06-12; view: 273
|