The IMF at A Glance: Surveillance

The IMF at a Glance
The International Monetary Fund, or IMF, promotes international financial stability and monetary
cooperation. It also facilitates international trade, promotes employment and sustainable
economic growth, and helps to reduce global poverty. The IMF is governed by and accountable
to its 189 member countries.
Founding and mission: The IMF was conceived in July 1944 at the United Nations Bretton
Woods Conference in New Hampshire, United States. The 44 countries in attendance sought to
build a framework for international economic cooperation in order to avoid repeating the
competitive currency devaluations that contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The
IMF's primary mission 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.
Surveillance: In order to maintain stability and prevent crises in the international monetary
system, the IMF monitors member country policies as well as national, regional, and global
economic and financial developments through a formal system known as surveillance. The IMF
provides advice to member countries and promotes policies designed to foster economic stability,
reduce vulnerability to economic and financial crises, and raise living standards. It also provides
periodic assessments of global prospects in its World Economic Outlook, of financial markets in
its Global Financial Stability Report, of public finance developments in its Fiscal Monitor, and of
external positions of largest economies in its External Sector Report, in addition to a series of
regional economic outlooks.
Financial assistance: Providing loans to member countries that are experiencing actual or
potential balance-of-payments problems is a core responsibility of the IMF. Individual country
adjustment programs are designed in close cooperation with the IMF and are supported by IMF
financing, and ongoing financial support is dependent on effective implementation of these
adjustments. In response to the global economic crisis, in April 2009 the IMF strengthened its
lending capacity and approved a major overhaul of its financial support mechanisms, with
additional reforms adopted in 2010 and 2011. These changes enhanced the IMFs crisis-
prevention toolkit, bolstering its ability to mitigate contagion during systemic crises and allowing
it to better tailor instruments to meet the needs of individual member countries.
Loan resources available to low-income countries were sharply increased in 2009, while average
limits under the IMFs concessional loan facilities were doubled. Under a new agreement that
went into effect in January 2016, members financial commitments to the IMF, also known as
their quotas, were significantly increased (see below), and access limits under the IMFs non-
concessional lending facilities were reviewed and increased. In addition, zero interest rates on
concessional loans were extended through the end of 2018, and the interest rate on emergency
financing is permanently set at zero. Finally, efforts are currently under way to secure additional
loan resources of about SDR 11 billion (about $15 billion) to support the IMFs concessional
lending activities.
Capacity development: The IMF provides technical assistance and training to help member
countries build better economic institutions and strengthen related human capacities. This
includes, for example, designing and implementing more effective policies for taxation and
administration, expenditure management, monetary and exchange rate policies, banking and
financial system supervision and regulation, legislative frameworks, and economic statistics.
SDRs: The IMF issues an international reserve asset known as Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs,
that can supplement the official reserves of member countries. Total global allocations are
currently about SDR 204 billion (some $275 billion). IMF members can voluntarily exchange
SDRs for currencies among themselves.
Resources: Member quotas are the primary source of IMF financial resources. A members quota
broadly reflects its size and position in the world economy. With the recent effectiveness of the
14th General Review of Quotas, total quota resources are now about SDR 475 billion (about $645
billion). In addition, credit arrangements between the IMF and a group of members and institutions
provide supplementary resources of up to about SDR 181 billion ($245 billion), and are the main
backstop to quotas. And in 2012 and 2016, member countries pledged to increase the IMFs
emergency resources through bilateral borrowing agreements; currently about SDR 245 billion
(about $330 billion) are effective.
Governance and organization: The IMF is accountable to its member country governments. At
the top of its organizational structure is the Board of Governors, consisting of one governor and
one alternate governor from each member country, usually the top officials from the central bank
or finance ministry. The Board of Governors meets once a year at the IMFWorld Bank Annual
Meetings. Twenty-four of the governors serve on the International Monetary and Financial
Committee, or IMFC, which advises the Board on the supervision and management of the
international monetary and financial system. The day-to-day work of the IMF is overseen by its
24-member Executive Board, which represents the entire membership and is guided by the IMFC
and supported by the IMF staff. The Managing Director is the head of the IMF staff and Chair of
the Executive Board and is assisted by four Deputy Managing Directors.
THIS INFORMATION IS CURRENT AS OF APRIL 2017

Fast Facts about the IMF
Membership: 189 countries
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
Executive Board: 24 directors each representing a single country or a group of countries
Staff: Approximately 2,700 from 147 countries
Total quotas: SDR 475 billion (US$645 billion) (as of March 2017)
Borrowed resources: SDR 426 billion (US$575 billion) (as of March 2017)
Committed amounts under current lending arrangements (as of March 2017): SDR 112 billion
(US$152 billion], of which SDR 103 billion (US$140 billion] has not been drawn (see table).
The largest borrowers (amounts outstanding as of March 2017): Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, Pakistan
The largest precautionary loans (as of March 2017): Mexico, Poland, Colombia, Morocco
Surveillance consultations: 132 consultations in 2014, 124 in 2015, and 132 in 2016.
Capacity development spending: US$332 million in FY2016, over a quarter of the IMFs total budget
Primary aims:
Promote international monetary cooperation;
Facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade;
Promote exchange stability;
Assist in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments; and
Make resources available (with adequate safeguards) to members experiencing balance-of-payments
difficulties.
THIS INFORMATION IS CURRENT AS OF APRIL 2017

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The IMF at a Glance

THIS INFORMATION IS CURRENT AS OF APRIL 2017

THIS INFORMATION IS CURRENT AS OF APRIL 2017

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