IMFInternational Monetary Fund

What is the IMF?• The IMF is an international

organization of 185 member countries. It was established to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustments.

Why was it created?• The IMF was conceived in July 1944, when

representatives of 45 governments meeting in the town of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in the northeastern United States, agreed on a framework for international economic cooperation.

What does it do?

• Surveillance• Lending• Technical assistance

SurveillanceIt is an assessment of economic and financial developments, which provides a framework that

facilitates the exchange of goods, services, and capital among countries and sustains sound economic growth. It consists in:

Focusing on assessing whether countries' policies promote external stability

It is to be remembered that surveillance is a collaborative, candid, and evenhanded process between the Fund and its members

Lending- IMF lending enables countries to rebuild their international

reserves; stabilize their currencies; continue paying for imports; and restore conditions for strong economic growth.

- IMF does not lend for specific projects.- It eases the adjustment policies and reforms that a country

must make to correct its balance of payments problem and restore conditions for strong economic growth.

Technical assistance• It supports the development of the

productive resources of member countries by helping them to effectively manage their economic policy and financial affairs.

• About 90 percent of IMF technical assistance goes to low and lower-middle income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Success of the IMF: Jamaica

• The IMF praised the government for tackling its huge debt burden and improving investor confidence.

• It has also laid out plans to reduce the country's debt as a percentage of GDP from its current level of 145% to 100% by 2009.

• economic growth of up to 4% a year was possible, it said, given a recovery in tourism and mining sectors.

Failures: Argentina