IMF

IMF IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.

When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.

As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).

The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.

http://imf.org

Eric Toussaint – a courageous whistleblower

15 October 2013 - by Jean Ziegler

This text is the postface of Eric Toussaint’s book, Procès d’un homme exemplaire (The Trial of an Exemplary Man), Al Dante, Marseille, 2013. In our Europe with its uniform conscience, wishy-washy consensus, and triumphant State-imposed logic, (...)
Grenada’s IMF Sunday School

12 October 2013 - by Eric LeCompte

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 2013 (IPS) - As the International Monetary Fund shares initial proposals for Grenada’s debt restructuring during the Washington DC meetings this week, the Caribbean island could gain a reputation for more than nutmeg, calypso, (...)
Millennium Development Goals

The Failure of the Debt System

10 October 2013 - by Eric Toussaint, Daniel Munevar

As the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold their annual meeting in Washington 11-13th October 2013 it is necessary to take a look at the state of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The history of economic development is (...)
The IMF and the World Bank: It’s time to replace them

4 October 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2014, the World Bank and the IMF will turn 70, and in October 2013, they will hold their usual annual meeting in Washington. Many organisations, including the CADTM, are joining together to call for a worldwide week of action against (...)
New developments in the trial against an emblematic IMF and WB figure

25 July 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

In early July 2013, the office of the attorney general of Switzerland (MPC) sought a two-year suspended prison sentence and a 162,000 euro fine (200,000 Swiss francs) against Jacques de Groote, former Executive Director for Belgium of the (...)
How the IMF and global finance are trying to block a democratic examination of Tunisia’s debt

17 July 2013 - by Chafik Ben Rouine

One year ago today, a bill to audit the Tunisian public debt was submitted to the Assembly. The debt audit was one of the first economic and social demands to have emerged during the first phase of the revolution in Tunisia. Servicing debt in (...)
The Age of Austerity

15 July 2013 - by Isabel Ortiz, Matthew Cummins

A Review of Public Expenditures and Adjustment Measures in 181 Countries This paper examines the latest IMF government spending projections for 181 countries by comparing the four distinct periods of 2005-07 (pre-crisis), 2008-09 (crisis (...)
Did you know…? The TROIKA

10 July 2013 - by PACD

The Troika is the informal name of the “decision making” group made up by the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission (EC). These three multilateral agencies - integrated by various (...)
An emblematic IMF and World Bank Personality Dragged Into Court

20 June 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

Jacques de Groote, ex-Executive Director of the IMF (1973-1994) and the World Bank (1975-1991) for Belgium is under accusation by Swiss justice. According to the Geneva daily Le Temps, he is standing trial in the Swiss town of Bellinzona in (...)
IMF and World Bank hold their Spring Meetings making gloomy days for development

6 May 2013 - by Jeroen Kwakkenbos, Bodo Ellmers

The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank just ended in Washington DC and brought little promise of sunny days ahead for development.
Jamaica’s decades of debt are damaging its future

16 April 2013 - by Nick Dearden

The latest IMF loan does not ’rescue’ Jamaica, whose debt must be written off if its people are to take control of their economy. Jamaica has made little progress towards the millennium development goals. Many people in Jamaica would have (...)
Series: Banks versus the People: the Underside of a Rigged Game! (Part 6)

Even the IMF agrees…

15 March 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

IMF declarations that do not please European leaders In October 2012, the IMF provided a key explanation of why the crisis was getting worse in Europe. Its Research Department wrote that every euro cut from public spending would result in a (...)
Video

Global Noise Demo in Tokyo against IMF and World Bank

15 October 2012 - by Globalnoise

Protesters march with a banner after a rally against the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Tokyo October 13, 2012. On Saturday about 300 hundred demonstrators, some waving wads of fake note bills and dressed in grotesque (...)
Why are Philippine funds being used to bail out irresponsible European banks?

2 July 2012 - by Walden Bello

The Philippine government’s decision to extend a $1 billion loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to supplement the Fund’s war chest of $456 billion to contain the economic crisis in Europe has been justified as assistance to countries in (...)
Greece : The IMF and Lagarde get it wrong

31 May 2012 - by Eric Toussaint, Damien Millet

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has made a declaration concerning Greece and Africa that requires explanation. The third world debt crisis started thirty years ago. Under strong and increasing (...)
Greece can do without the ’sympathy’ the IMF has shown Niger

30 May 2012 - by Nick Dearden

In Niger, the IMF’s loans have done more harm than good as ordinary people have had to pay the price for reckless lending A malnourished child at an aid centre in Maradi, Niger, during a drought in 2005. Photograph: EPA Christine Lagarde’s (...)
Press release

The CADTM downgrades its IMF rating and places this institution on very negative outlook.

6 February 2012 - by CADTM

The Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM) has decided to downgrade the IMF’s rating due to this institution’s heavy share of responsibility for the deterioration of people’s living standards in countries subjected to austerity (...)
Press Release

Egypt: transitional government obtains loans four times as much as those of Mubarak’s time

2 February 2012 - by Amr Adly

The IMF loan issue is looming again in the horizon, a few months after the rejection of a similar loan. It was claimed that the first loan was rejected because its conditions were unacceptable, however, such conditions were never revealed to the (...)
Why Pakistan says adieu to IMF program?

24 September 2011 - by Abdul Khaliq

Existing $11.3 billion Stand By Agreement (SBA) is 8th program with IMF, going to be ended on a bitter note. Having kept the IMF at arm’s length for over a year now is anything but good news. The government of Pakistan has taken the latest (...)
End financial control of European governance

9 August 2011 - by Susan George, Nick Buxton

We need Eurobonds and a new charter for Europe The Euro crisis is clear evidence that we need to break out of the economic straight-jacket imposed by the Lisbon Treaty, the European Central Bank and the over-powerful financial sector. You (...)
Some useful reminders about Dominique Strauss-Kahn

2 June 2011 - by Jérôme Duval

► He served as Minister of Industry and International Trade from 1991 to 1993, during which he participated in the trade negotiations of the Uruguay Round, preparatory to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). ► In 1994, he (...)
The IMF dictates more than ever

12 February 2011 - by Jérôme Duval

As an instrument of the big creditors, the IMF tramples on basic human rights to enforce neoliberal policy in the North and in the South The superpowers have used the current crisis to move the International Monetary Fund (IMF) back into the (...)
Repaying bondholders while immiserating people: Ireland’s EU-IMF programme

16 January 2011 - by Andy Storey

Ireland has been a member of the IMF since 1957. Despite ongoing calls from global justice groups for Ireland to help reform the undemocratic governance of the IMF and end the damaging impact of the IMF’s policy conditions, the country has failed (...)
Global Justice Campaigners say IMF Has Failed All Around the World

As Ireland faces the prospect of IMF intervention in its economy, Irish global justice group, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI), today warned that the IMF’s track record shows that the institution seeks to silence voices for justice, (...)
High time for flood-hit Pakistan to refuse foreign debt repayments

16 August 2010 - by Abdul Khaliq

Press Conference at Lahore Press Club on Friday, August 13, 2010, addressed by Abdul Khaliq (CADTM-Pakistan) and Farooq Tariq (LPP) Pakistan is facing the worst disaster of its history. About 20 million of its population is badly affected by (...)