About the IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 188

countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure
financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high
employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty
around the world.
Created in 1945, the IMF is governed by and accountable to the 188
countries that make up its near-global membership.
The IMF at a Glance
Why the IMF was created and how it works

The IMF, also known as the Fund, was conceived at a UN conference in

Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, in July 1944. The 44
countries at that conference sought to build a framework for economic
cooperation to avoid a repetition of the competitive devaluations that had
contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The IMF's responsibilities: The IMF's primary purpose is to ensure the
stability of the international monetary systemthe system of exchange
rates and international payments that enables countries (and their
citizens) to transact with each other. The Fund's mandate was updated
in 2012 to include all macroeconomic and financial sector issues that
bear on global stability.

Our Work

The IMFs fundamental mission is to ensure the stability of the international

monetary system. It does so in three ways: keeping track of the global
economy and the economies of member countries; lending to countries with
balance of payments difficulties; and giving practical help to members.
Surveillance

The IMF oversees the international monetary system and monitors the
economic and financial policies of its 188 member countries. As part of this
process, which takes place both at the global level and in individual countries,
the IMF highlights possible risks to stability and advises on needed policy
adjustments.
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Lending

A core responsibility of the IMF is to provide loans to member countries

experiencing actual or potential balance of payments problems. This financial
assistance enables countries to rebuild their international reserves, stabilize
their currencies, continue paying for imports, and restore conditions for strong
economic growth, while undertaking policies to correct underlying problems.
Unlike development banks, the IMF does not lend for specific projects.
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Technical Assistance

The IMF helps its member countries design economic policies and manage
their financial affairs more effectively by strengthening their human and
institutional capacity through technical assistance and training. The IMF aims
to exploit synergies between technical assistance and trainingwhich it calls
capacity developmentto maximize their effectiveness.

The IMF has a management team and 17 departments that carry out its
country, policy, analytical, and technical work. One department is charged with
managing the IMFs resources. This section also explains where the IMF gets
its resources and how they are used.
Management

The IMF has a Managing Director, who is head of the staff and Chairperson of
the Executive Board. The Managing Director is appointed by the Executive
Board for a renewable term of five years and is assisted by a First Deputy
Managing Director and three Deputy Managing Directors.
Staf

The IMFs employees come from all over the world; they are responsible to the
IMF and not to the authorities of the countries of which they are citizens. The
IMF staff is organized mainly into area; functional; and information, liaison,
and support responsibilities.
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IMF resources

Most resources for IMF loans are provided by member countries, primarily
through their payment of quotas.
Quotas

Quota subscriptions are a central component of the IMFs financial resources.

Each member country of the IMF is assigned a quota, based broadly on its
relative position in the world economy.
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Special Drawing Rights (SDR)

The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to

supplement its member countries official reserves.

Gold

Gold remains an important asset in the reserve holdings of several countries,

and the IMF is still one of the worlds largest official holders of gold.
Borrowing arrangements

While quota subscriptions of member countries are the IMF's main source of
financing, the Fund can supplement its quota resources through borrowing if it
believes that they might fall short of members' needs.
Governance Structure

The IMF has evolved along with the global economy throughout its 70-year
history, allowing the organization to retain a central role within the international
financial architecture.
Country Representation

Unlike the General Assembly of the United Nations, where each country has
one vote, decision making at the IMF was designed to reflect the relative
positions of its member countries in the global economy. The IMF continues to
undertake reforms to ensure that its governance structure adequately reflects
fundamental changes taking place in the world economy.
Accountability

Created in 1945, the IMF is governed by and accountable to the 188 countries
that make up its near-global membership.
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Corporate Responsibility

The Fund actively promotes good governance within its own organization.

How the IMF Promotes Global Economic

Stability
March 27, 2015

The IMF advises member countries on economic and financial policies that promote
stability, reduce vulnerability to crises, and encourage sustained growth and high
living standards. It also reviews and publishes global economic trends and
developments that affect the health of the international monetary and financial
system and promotes dialogue among member countries on the regional and global
consequences of their policies. In addition to these activities, which constitute
surveillance, the IMF provides technical assistance to help strengthen members
institutional capacity and makes resources available to them to facilitate adjustment
in the event of a balance of payments crisis.

Why is global economic stability important?

Promoting economic stability is partly a matter of avoiding economic and financial
crises, large swings in economic activity, high inflation, and excessive volatility in
exchange rates and financial markets. Instability can increase uncertainty,
discourage investment, impede economic growth, and hurt living standards. A
dynamic market economy necessarily involves some degree of instability, as well
as gradual structural change. The challenge for policymakers is to minimize
instability in their own country and abroad without reducing the economys ability
to improve living standards through rising productivity and employment.
Economic and financial stability is both a national and a multilateral concern. As
recent financial crises have shown, countries have become more interconnected.
Problems in one sector can result in problems in other sectors and spillovers
across borders. No country is an island when it comes to economic and financial
stability.

How does the IMF help?

The IMF helps countries to implement sound and appropriate policies through its
key functions of surveillance, technical assistance, and lending.
Surveillance: Every country that joins the IMF accepts the obligation to subject
its economic and financial policies to the scrutiny of the international community.

The IMF's mandate is to oversee the international monetary system and monitor
the economic and financial policies of its 188 member countries. This process,
known as surveillance, takes place at the global level and in individual countries
and regions. The IMF considers whether domestic policies promote countries own
stability by examining risks they might pose to domestic and balance of
payments stability and advising on needed policy adjustments. It also proposes
alternatives in cases where countries policies promote domestic stability but
could affect global stability.

Consulting with member states

The IMF monitors members economies through regularusually annual
consultations with each member country. During these consultations, IMF staff
discusses economic and financial developments and policies with national
policymakers, and often with representatives of private sector, labor unions,
academia, and civil society. The staff assesses risks and vulnerabilities, and
considers the impact of fiscal, monetary, financial, and exchange rate policies on
the members domestic and balance of payments stability and on global stability.
The IMF offers advice on policies to promote each countrys macroeconomic,
financial, and balance of payments stability, drawing on experience from across
its membership.
The framework for these consultations is set forth in the IMF Articles of
Agreement and, more recently, in the Integrated Surveillance Decision. These
consultations are also informed by membership-wide initiatives, including

work to systematically assess countries' vulnerabilities to crises;

the Financial Sector Assessment Program, which assesses countries
financial sectors and helps formulate policy responses to risks and
vulnerabilities; and
the Standards and Codes Initiative in which the IMF, along with the World
Bank and other bodies, assesses countries observance of internationally
recognized standards and codes of good practice in a dozen policy areas.

Overseeing the bigger world picture

The IMF also closely monitors global and regional trends.
The IMFs periodic reports, the World Economic Outlook, its regional
overviews, the Fiscal Monitor, and the Global Financial Stability Report,
analyze global and regional macroeconomic and financial developments. The
IMFs broad membership makes it uniquely well suited to facilitate multilateral
discussions on issues of common concern to groups of member countries, and

advance a shared understanding on policies to promote stability. In this context,

the Fund has been working with the G-20 group of advanced and emerging
economies to assess the consistency of those countries policy frameworks with
balanced and sustained growth for the global economy.
The Fund has reviewed its surveillance mandate in light of the global crisis. It has
introduced a number of reforms to improve financial sector surveillance within
member countries and across borders, to enhance understanding of interlinkages
between macroeconomic and financial developments (e.g. through a Spillover
Report), and promote debate on these matters.
Data: In response to the financial crisis, the IMF is working with members, the
Financial Stability Board, and other organizations to fill data gaps important for
global stability.
Technical assistance: The IMF helps countries strengthen their capacity to
design and implement sound economic policies. It provides advice and training on
a range of issues within its mandate, including fiscal, monetary, and exchange
rate policies; the regulation and supervision of financial systems; statistics
systems; and legal frameworks.
Lending: Even the best economic policies cannot completely eradicate instability
or avert crises. If a member country does experience financing difficulties, the
IMF can provide financial assistance to support policy programs that will correct
underlying macroeconomic problems, limit disruption to the domestic and global
economies, and help restore confidence, stabilityand growth. IMF financing
instruments can also support crisis prevention.