International Monetary Fund

Question 1

IMF Origins + members

Answer 1

Origins: Bretton woods conference 1944
Members: 189

Question 2

IMF main goals:

Answer 2

• Int. finance cooperation – ensuring international liquidity for investments
• Monetary stability

Question 3

IMF structure

Answer 3

Board of governors: composed by fiance ministers or central bankers of all member states (decide high-level policy question)
Directors of executive board: 24 members (decide on loan requests and other operational decisions)

Question 4

IMF decision-making

Answer 4

Predominantly by consensus, voting power based on shares held by member states.

Question 5

IMF actions

Answer 5

Large-scale credit to states in financial insecurity (“bailout”):
E.g. UK crisis (1976), Asia crisis (end of 1990s) and the 2014 European crisis (Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain).

Technical assistance

Monitoring (research on the financial state of affairs of member states)

General research: World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report