International Monetary Fund(IMF)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an International Organization  that was initiated in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference and formally created in 1945 by 29 member countries.

The IMF's stated goal was to assist in the reconstruction of the world’s International Payment System post WW II.Through this activity and others such as surveillance of its members' economies and the demand for self-correcting policies, the IMF works to improve the economies of its member countries

Upon initial IMF formation, its two primary functions were -

• to oversee the fixed exchange rate arrangements between countries thus helping national governments manage their exchange rates and allowing these governments to prioritize economic growth and

• to provide short-term capital to aid Balance of payments

The IMF’s role was fundamentally altered after the Floating Exchange Rates  post 1971

IMF shifted to examining the economic policies of countries with IMF loan agreements to determine if a shortage of capital was due to economic fluctuations or economic policy.

Members

The 188 Members of IMF include the 187 Members of the UN and the Republic of Kosovo

Board of Governors

The Board of Governors consists of one governor and one alternate governor for each member country. Each member country appoints its two governors. The Board normally meets once a year and is responsible for electing or appointing executive directors to the Executive Board. 

Executive Board

• 24 Executive Directors make up Executive Board.

• 8 countries each appoint an Executive Director: the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, the Russian Federation, and Saudi Arabia

• The remaining 16 Directors represent constituencies consisting of 4 to 22 countries

Managing Director

The IMF is led by a Managing Director, who is head of the staff and serves as Chairman of the Executive Board. The Managing Director is assisted by a First Deputy Managing Director and three other Deputy Managing Directors

Voting Power

Voting power in the IMF is based on a quota system. Each member has a number of “basic votes" (each member's number of basic votes equals 5.502% of the total votes),plus one additional vote for each Special Drawing Right (SDR) of 100,000 of a member country’s quota

Headquarters

The IMF HQ is in Washington DC