IMF

International 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

Surveillance
It 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 lowermiddle 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.