IMF: transcript. Goals, objectives and role of the organization in the world

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

IMF (short for International Monetary Fund) was established in 1944 at the Bretton Woods conference in the United States. Its goals were originally declared as follows: promoting international cooperation in the field of finance, expanding and growing trade, ensuring the stability of currencies, assisting in settlements between member countries and providing them with funds in order to correct imbalances in the balance of payments. However, in practice, the Fund's activities are reduced to acquisitiveness for a minority (countries and transnational corporations), which, among other organizations, controls the IMF. Have IMF loans, or IMF (short for International Monetary Fund) helped countries in need? How does the Fund's work affect the global economy?

IMF: deciphering concepts, functions and tasks

IMF stands for International Monetary Fund, IMF (abbreviation decoding) in the Russian version looks like this: International Monetary Fund. This intergovernment althe organization is called upon to promote monetary cooperation on the basis of advising its members and allocating loans to them.

The objective of the Fund is to secure a solid parity of currencies. To this end, the Member States have established them in gold and US dollars, agreeing not to change them by more than ten percent without the consent of the Fund and not to deviate from this balance when carrying out transactions by more than one percent.

History of foundation and development of the Fund

In 1944, at the Bretton Woods conference in the United States, representatives of forty-four countries decided to create a single base for economic cooperation in order to avoid devaluation, the consequence of which was the Great Depression in the thirties, and also in order to restore the financial system between states after the war. The next year, based on the results of the conference, the IMF was created.

The USSR also took an active part in the conference and signed the Act on the establishment of the organization, but subsequently did not ratify it and did not participate in the activities. But in the nineties, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and other countries - the former Soviet republics joined the IMF.

In 1999, the IMF already included 182 countries.

Governing bodies, structure and participating countries

The headquarters of the specialized organization of the UN - the IMF - is located in Washington. The governing body of the International Monetary Fund is the Board of Governors. It includes the actual manager and deputy from each member country of the Fund.

Executive Councilconsists of 24 directors representing groups of countries or individual participating countries. At the same time, the managing director is always a European, and his first deputy is an American.

The authorized capital is formed by contributions from states. Currently, the IMF includes 188 countries. Based on the size of the paid quotas, their votes are distributed among the countries.

IMF data shows that the largest number of votes belongs to the United States (17.8%), Japan (6.13%), Germany (5.99%), Great Britain and France (4.95% each), Saudi Arabia (3.22%), Italy (4.18%) and Russia (2.74%). Thus, the United States, as having the largest number of votes, is the only country that has the right to veto the most important issues discussed in the IMF. And many European countries (and not only them) simply vote the same as the United States of America.

The role of the Fund in the global economy

The IMF constantly monitors the financial and monetary policies of member countries and the state of the economy around the world. To this end, consultations are held every year with government organizations regarding exchange rates. On the other hand, Member States should consult with the Fund on macroeconomic issues.

For countries in need, the IMF provides loans, offering countries borrowed funds that they can use for a variety of purposes.

In the first twenty years of its existence, the Fund gave loans mainly to developed countries, but then this activity was reoriented to developing countries. It's interesting thataround the same time, the neo-colonial system in the world began its formation.

Conditions for countries to receive a loan from the IMF

In order for the member states of the organization to receive a loan from the IMF, they must meet a number of political and economic conditions.

This trend was formed in the eighties of the twentieth century, and over time only continues to tighten.

The IMF-Bank requires the implementation of programs that, in fact, lead not to the country's exit from the crisis, but to the curtailment of investments, the cessation of economic growth and the deterioration of the social situation of citizens in general.

It is noteworthy that in 2007 there was a severe crisis of the IMF organization. The deciphering of the 2008 global economic downturn, according to financial analysts, may have been its consequence. No one wanted to take loans from the organization, and those countries that received them earlier sought to repay their debts ahead of schedule.

But there was a global crisis, everything fell into place, and even more. The IMF has tripled its resources as a result and has an even greater impact on the global economy.