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Contributions from
the Column
Monitor
How UN missions impact
on local economies
Trade liberalisation has
born little fruit
Conference: “E-Learning
Africa 2006”
Wieczorek-Zeul and
Morales meet
Solidarity and productivity
Debate on debt relief
AIDS medication:
progress with provision
Bird flu: EU increases
export subsidies
A new role for the IMF
05/2006
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[ Spring meetings ]
A new role for the IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be given greater authority to monitor the global economy and the policies of its members. In future, the IMF will be able to instigate multilateral meetings with countries whose policies contribute to global economic imbalances, for joint solutions to be found. This decision was made by the International Monetary and Financial Committee at the spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington in late April. Current procedures only provide for bilateral talks between the IMF and the member governments. The new strategy requires the 184 member countries to agree to an expansion of their obligations to report to the IMF. Rodrigo de Rato, IMF Managing Director, will draw up the details of the new consultation process in time for the autumn meeting. By then, de Rato will also have submitted proposals for redistributing voting rights in the IMF, a step meant to enhance the influence of the large emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil.
Among other topics, the talks in the Development Committee, a joint IMF and World Bank body, focussed on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the third MDG Global Monitoring Report, which was written on behalf of both institutions, the greatest progress has been made in combating child mortality and increasing the number of children enrolling in schools. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said at a press conference that poor governance was the greatest obstacle to achieving the MDGs. The Development Committee agreed to work out the essentials for a standard method of evaluating a country’s governance by the autumn meeting. Moreover, the Committee gave the go-ahead to cancel the debts of eleven more highly indebted countries, including Eritrea, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan and Nepal.
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