IMF member countries. International Monetary Fund. Dossier. For what purposes are international funds created?

Evgeny Borodin, consultant

General information

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a specialized UN agency established at the world monetary and financial conference in Bretton Woods (USA, New Hampshire) in July 1944, at which its participants adopted the articles of agreement of the IMF, which serve as its charter. The foundation began its practical activities in May 1946 - it included 39 countries. The USSR took part in the Bretton Woods Conference, but due to the outbreak of the Cold War, the articles of the IMF agreement were not ratified. For the same reason, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Cuba left the IMF in the 50-60s.

During "perestroika" G7" the decision was made: European Union coordinates assistance to countries Eastern Europe, and directly from the IMF to the USSR (then to Russia and the CIS countries). On June 1, 1992, Russia signed the articles of agreement of the IMF, and it officially became a member of this organization.

Today, the IMF includes 185 countries, almost all UN member countries except Cuba, North Korea, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Nauru and Tuvalu.

The goal of the IMF is to regulate the monetary and credit relations of member states and provide them with assistance in case of balance of payments deficit by providing short- and medium-term loans in foreign currency.

The highest governing body of the IMF is the Board of Governors, in which each member country is represented by a governor and his deputy. All managers meet once a year at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

The IMF's policies are controlled by the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), whose 24 members are the finance ministers or central bank governors of countries and groups of countries represented on the Executive Council.

The IMF Executive Board is responsible for most decisions and consists of 24 executive directors. Russia is represented by Mozhin A.V. and Lushin A.. The eight countries with the largest quotas in the Fund - the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia - appoint their directors. The remaining 176 member states are organized into 16 groups, each of which elects one Executive Director.

The Executive Board elects a managing director for a five-year term (since September 2007 - Dominique Strauss-Kahn, France).

By agreement between the countries that are the founders of the Fund, the managing director must be a representative of one of European countries, and the director of the World Bank is a US citizen.

The IMF has approximately 2,700 staff and is headquartered in Washington.. The Foundation has representative offices in more than 80 countries around the world, including in Russia.

The IMF receives income from interest and fees on loans and uses the income to cover financing costs, pay administrative expenses, and accumulate insurance balances. In fiscal year 2007, revenue was SDR 111 million below expenses. The net revenue shortfall primarily reflects a significant decline in outstanding IMF lending, from a peak of SDR 70 billion in September 2003 to SDR 7.3 billion at the end of fiscal year 2007 and due to low demand for new IMF lending, as well as early repayment loans by some member states in recent years.

Record-breaking volumes of borrowing from the IMF - $120 billion - occurred in 1997-1999. The largest recipients of financial assistance during this period were the countries most affected by financial crises: South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia.

Conditions for membership in the IMF and lending mechanisms

Upon joining the IMF, each member country pays a subscription fee called a “quota.” Countries pay 25% of their quota in the form of reserve assets, so-called. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, or the main currency (US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, pound sterling). If necessary for lending purposes, the IMF may request from a member country the balance, payable in its own currency. The quota size is reviewed every 5 years. The total amount of contributions from member countries forms the authorized capital of the IMF, which is used to provide temporary assistance to countries experiencing financial difficulties.

The quota is calculated based on data on the volume of a country's GDP, as well as on the basis of a country's existing gold and foreign exchange reserves, and determines the amount that it can borrow from the IMF and its voting rights. The total amount of quotas in the IMF is equivalent to SDR 217.4 billion. The United States has the largest quota of 37.149 billion SDRs or 371,743 (16.77%) votes, Russia has 5.945 billion SDRs or 59,704 (2.69%) votes. However, the new managing director of Strauss-Kann, who was not supported by Russia during his appointment, proposes to reduce Russia's quota to 1.7–1.8% and transfer its influence to the level of the Persian Gulf countries, Thailand and Argentina. Taken together, the United States and the countries of the European Union currently have 50% of the total quota when voting in the IMF and, in fact, can carry out any decision regardless of the opinions of other countries combined, so reducing Russia’s quota, by and large, has no practical significance.

Basic mechanisms and terms of lending

When providing financial assistance, the Fund requires the borrowing country to fulfill certain conditions regarding its monetary system, foreign trade, the balance of the state budget, and the degree of their rigidity increases as we move from one tranche to another. The obligations of the borrowing country are recorded in a Letter of Intent or Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies sent to the IMF. Progress in fulfilling obligations is monitored through periodic evaluation. If the IMF considers that a country is using a loan in conflict with the goals of the Fund and is not fulfilling its obligations, it may limit its lending and refuse to provide the next tranche. Thus, this mechanism allows the IMF to exert economic and often political pressure on borrowing countries.

Russia's relationship with the IMF

In January 1992, the Russian Government officially applied to the IMF for financial assistance in the amount of $6 billion to create a stabilization fund. The first assistance agreement was signed by M. Camdessus and E. Gaidar at the beginning of July 1992. On August 5, the first tranche of $1 billion was provided, which was used to replenish foreign exchange reserves, make payments on external debt and intervene in the foreign exchange market. However, Russia did not receive subsequent tranches of the reserve loan in 1992. Funds ($6 billion) intended for the ruble stabilization fund were not allocated either. The IMF explained the refusal by saying that Russian government evaded the implementation of the stabilization program agreed upon with him, the volume of GDP decreased by 14.5%, the federal budget deficit, instead of the planned level of 5% of GDP, reached (according to the IMF methodology) 22.4%, and inflation averaged 20.5% per month.

In June 1993, the IMF offered Russia a second loan of $3 billion. within the framework of the newly created direction - “System Transformation Facility - STF”. Unlike others, the STF loan came with less stringent conditions and required that the borrowing country not impose trade restrictions. However, on September 19, 1993, the IMF suspended the transfer of money to the Russian Federation due to the fact that the Government was unable to contain inflation and reduce budget expenditures. In 1994, negotiations were held with the IMF delegation, as a result of which Russia received the second tranche of a $1.5 billion loan in support of systemic reforms. Following the currency turmoil of the fall of 1994, which culminated in Black Tuesday (October 11, 1994), The government has set a course to suppress inflation as the main macroeconomicgoals, which prompted support from the IMF. This resulted in the provision of a reserve stabilization loan of $6.8 billion in April 1995. The package of agreements with the IMF consisted not only of the requirement to reduce inflation to 2% per month, but also the state budget deficit to 8% of GDP. Monitoring was to be carried out every month (previously it was carried out quarterly) by a special working group consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and IMF experts.

From the point of view of Russia's external economic indicators, 1997 was the most successful year. In 1998, the economic situation in Russia deteriorated sharply due to the fall in energy prices on world markets. As a result, the balance of payments on the current account turned from active to passive in the first half of 1998 with a deficit of $5.1 billion. In order to balance the state budget and prevent devaluation of the ruble, the Government developed an anti-crisis program and turned to the IMF for financial assistance. The agreement with the IMF provided for the provision of a loan in four tranches, but the first loan provided could no longer save the situation and on August 17, 1998, the country declared a default.

After the default, Russia did not receive financial assistance from the IMF. In 2005, the Government repaid its debt to the IMF ahead of schedule, paying $3.3 billion.

IMF loans to Russia and their conditions

In recent years, the IMF's policies and recommendations regarding developing countries are often criticized, the essence of which is that the implementation of recommendations and conditions are ultimately not aimed at increasing independence and development national economy, but only tie it to international financial flows.

Milton Friedman, American economist, laureate Nobel Prize in Economics, believes that IMF policy has become a destabilizing factor in the markets of developing countries. And not because of the conditions that he imposed on his clients, but primarily because he is trying to protect private investors from their own mistakes. Mexico's bailout during the 1995 crisis fueled crises in other emerging markets. “It would not be an exaggeration to say,” emphasizes M. Friedman, “if the IMF had not existed, then there would have been no East Asian crisis.” This shows that international structures such as the IMF are not capable of effectively solving the tasks assigned to them. Some economists have even begun to call for the cessation of the IMF in the form in which it currently exists.

Today, almost no one takes out IMF-related financial loans and therefore new IMF obligations have dropped sharply: from SDR 8.3 billion in fiscal year 2006 to SDR 237 million in 2007, and those who previously received financial assistance from the IMF are trying to repay early debts. In fiscal year 2007, nine member countries: Bulgaria, Haiti, Indonesia, Malawi, Serbia, Uruguay, Philippines, Central African Republic, Ecuador, repaid their current obligations to the IMF ahead of schedule, totaling SDR 7.1 billion.

The International Monetary Fund is a financial institution that, despite its status as a special UN agency, has gained notoriety. What is the IMF, what are its functions according to constituent documents and in fact, how fair are the critics who call the fund’s financial assistance destructive for the economies of the countries being financed?

Creation of the IMF, goals of the fund

The concept of a monetary fund, whose mission would be to support financial stability throughout the world, called the “IMF Charter”, was developed in July 1944 during the Bretton Woods Conference under the auspices of the United Nations, which resolved issues of international financial and monetary interaction after the apparent end of World War II war.

The date of creation of the IMF (English IMF, or International Monetary Fund) became December 27, 1945 - on this day, representatives of the first 29 IMF countries officially signed the final version of the relevant agreement. The organization's de facto activities began only on March 1, 1947, when France took out the first IMF loan. Today the IMF unites 188 countries, and the fund's headquarters is located in Washington.

According to Article 1 of the IMF Charter, the International Monetary Fund has the following goals:

promoting cooperation of all countries in the monetary and financial sphere, joint resolution of financial problems;

promoting the achievement and maintenance high level real incomes and employment of the population of the countries of the world, strengthening and development of the industrial and productive potential of all member states without exception through the expansion and growth of international trade;

maintaining the stability of the currencies of the member states, preventing the devaluation of national currencies;

assistance in the formation and functioning of a multilateral settlement system for financial transactions between member countries, in the abolition of currency restrictions that stand in the way of the growth of world trade;

by providing financial assistance to Member States, to enable them to eliminate imbalances in their balance of payments without introducing measures that could harm their national welfare;

reduce the duration of imbalances in the balance of payments of member countries, while simultaneously reducing the scale of these violations.

It is noteworthy that the so-called financial assistance of the fund is provided exclusively in the form of loans, but they are not provided for the implementation of specific projects. The interest on them is small (0.5% per annum), but often lending does not contribute to the development of the real sector of the economy and the production of competitive products. The following shows the provision of funds from the fund various countries since 1972 for 40 years, i.e. from expiration date:

First post-war years The fund's main borrower was Europe to rebuild its war-damaged economy. Since the early 1980s, the emphasis has shifted towards Latin America and Asia, and since the 1990s, Russia and the CIS countries have also played a significant role in loans. Ukraine is still in constant contact with the fund. Finally, since the 2000s, loans have been flowing again to Europe - mainly Eastern Europe.

It is noteworthy that the time before the year was the most favorable in the world and the least favorable for the fund - very few loans were required, accordingly the IMF’s influence on world economy and politics has greatly diminished. However, already in 2011, lending quickly restored its volumes, which continued to grow further, including in connection with the Cyprus and Greek crises.

The IMF’s policy is clearly visible from the graph - to help all (and not just poor) countries, focusing on current problems. At the same time, by the way, it is interesting that complete or almost complete absence loans African countries. Any country within the IMF is either a borrower of the fund, receiving and paying off the loan, or its creditor in accordance with its quota. It can be seen that, in addition to the decline before the last global crisis, the average historical amount of loans has grown over time - compared to the end of the 80s, Europe in 2012 borrowed about 5-6 times more.

In what currency are loans calculated? The fact is that the IMF has its own non-cash means of payment, called “special drawing rights” (Special Drawing Rights, SDR). The scale at the top is in billions of SDR. Formally, it is neither a debt obligation nor a currency.

Since 2016, the SDR rate has been pegged to a basket of 5 currencies and is similar to . Nevertheless, there are differences - perhaps the main thing is the presence Chinese yuan in the amount of almost 11% due to a decrease in the share of the euro. At the time of this article, the SDR rate is 1.45 US dollars. You can view it, for example, here: http://bankir.ru/kurs/sdr-k-dollar-ssha/.

Functions of the IMF

The list of modern functions of the International Monetary Fund largely coincides with Article 1 of the IMF Charter:

expansion of international trade;

assistance to countries in the form of lending;

promoting interstate interaction in monetary policy;

assistance in the preparation (training, internship) of economic personnel;

stabilization of exchange rates;

advising debtor countries;

development and implementation of global financial statistics standards;

collection, processing and publication of these statistics.

It is interesting that prominent economists subject to reasoned criticism not only the methods of the IMF’s work with debtor countries (that is, those with outstanding debts to the organization), but also the quality of statistics published by the fund, as well as analytical reports.

Structure of the International Monetary Fund

Fund management and decisions on issuing loans are carried out by:

The Board of Governors is the name of the highest governing body of the International Monetary Fund. It includes two authorized persons from each member state - the manager and his deputy;

The Executive Board consists of 24 directors who represent certain member states or groups of countries. Head executive body- the managing director is invariably the plenipotentiary representative of Europe, and his first deputy is a US citizen. Eight directors are delegated by states with the largest quotas in the IMF, the remaining 16 are elected by other participating countries, divided into the appropriate number of groups;

The International Monetary and Financial Committee is formally an advisory body consisting of twenty-four governors, including a representative of the Russian Federation. Performs, in particular, the function of developing strategic decisions relating to the global monetary and financial system;

The IMF Development Committee is another advisory body with similar functions.

IMF capitalization and sources of funds

As of March 1, 2016, the size of the IMF’s authorized capital was about 467.2 billion SDR. Capital is formed by contributions to the monetary fund of member countries, paying as a rule 25% of the quota in SDR (or one of the world currencies) and the remaining 75% in their own national currency. Quotas are constantly revised—there have already been 15 revisions since the foundation began its activities. In 2015, another change occurred with the delegation of about 6% of developed countries towards developing ones.

Important: almost all real decisions are made by a majority of 85% of the votes. At the same time, approximately 17 percent quota (for 2016 contribution of about 42 billion SDR) belongs to the United States of America, giving it an exclusive veto right. Japan, which is in second place, has a quota almost three times lower - about 6%. Russia's share is 2.7% (contribution of about 6.5 billion SDR). So it is extremely difficult to call critics of the organization who claim “the IMF is the USA” wrong or biased.




In fact, the United States and the European Union, which often supports it, have a sufficient quota in the IMF to make the vast majority of decisions. The efforts of China, Russia and India to increase quotas in the fund in accordance with the increased weight of these countries in the world economy are met with opposition from the United States and its allies, who do not want to lose political influence on other IMF countries through the “conditionality” of loans - the presentation of mandatory political obligations to debtor states. -economic requirements.

However, one should not think that the financial problems of countries can be solved only with the help of IMF money. For example, the recent loan to Greece of more than 300 billion euros was financed by the IMF by less than 10% and amounted to only about 20 billion euros in euro terms. A much larger amount—€130 billion—was allocated by the European Financial Stability Fund, created in June 2010.

In addition to the quotas paid by the participating countries, the sources of financial resources of the Monetary Fund are:

gold holdings, according to official data amounting to about 90.5 million ounces and valued at 3.2 billion SDR. The organization accepts gold from participating countries mainly as payment for interest on loans, after which it has the right to use it to finance new loan tranches;

loans from “financially secure” member states;

funds from donor trust funds and lines of credit that open the fund to G7 and G20 countries.

Russia joined the IMF in June 1992, immediately resorting to obtaining a loan. According to eyewitnesses, during one of his first visits to the Kremlin, Clinton was amazed by the luxury of the halls and said to a colleague: “And these people are asking us for money?” Over 6 years (from August 1992 to early August 1998), Russia borrowed a total of more than $32 billion from the fund - however, the loans did not help us achieve either a projected reduction in inflation or prevent the August default of 1998. Russia repaid the loan from 2000 to 2005 years, taking advantage of rising oil prices, and since 2005 has become a creditor of the fund. The table below shows the distribution of loans in the 90s and the lender's requirements for Russia:




Financial assistance or credit needle?

Many experts argue that the recommendations of the creditor fund to the IMF borrowing countries de facto fundamentally contradict the principles and goals declared by the Charter. Instead of developing their productive potential, borrowing countries are hooked on the credit needle, and real incomes of the population do not increase - they fall.

Critics of the fund explain that the conditions for receiving IMF loans are often:

deprivation of the borrower state's right to freely issue national currency;

total privatization, including in areas of natural monopolies (housing and communal services, railway transport);

rejection of protectionist measures to protect our own producers and support for medium and small businesses;

freedom of movement of capital, allowing for their outflow abroad;

cutting spending on social programs, eliminating benefits for vulnerable groups of the population, reducing salaries in the public sector and pensions.

However, the listed measures often only aggravate the crisis in the economy; impoverishment of the population leads to a decrease in consumption, leading to a decline in production, bankruptcy of enterprises and a deterioration in the state budget. As a result, the government has to take out new loans to pay off the previous ones.

Countries most affected by IMF dependence:

Rwanda, where the refusal of state support for farms and the devaluation of the national currency led to a drop in incomes of the population, pushing it into the abyss of the Hutu-Tutsi civil war with 1.5 million victims;

Yugoslavia, which collapsed due to problems with the economic alignment of the regions;

Argentina, which declared twice;

Mexico is the birthplace of domesticated corn, which has turned from an exporter of this agricultural crop into an importer.

According to forecasts, this list may be supplemented by Ukraine, which is being forced by the creditor fund to increase gas prices. Its rise in price not only hits the pockets of citizens, but also completely negates the competitiveness of Ukrainian commodity producers, already undermined by the unfavorable Association Agreement with the EU. Ukraine, together with Romania and Hungary, is the largest current debtor to the International Monetary Fund.

But since history does not have a subjunctive mood, it is impossible to assess what the consequences will be in different countries would have resulted from a lack of funding from the IMF. So the position of the fund’s defenders is something like this: maybe things didn’t work out well in some places, but without the loan it would have been even worse. And critics of the fund are attacking not the very idea of ​​providing a loan, but the conditions accompanying the loan - which in fact have an ambiguous effect on the economy and do not interfere with corruption, but in many ways look like an increase in the political influence of the main lender. And although the inefficiency of the current lending system is clear to almost everyone, real changes in such a cumbersome and politically important structure cannot happen “with the snap of a finger.” What is more useful or harmful from the IMF at the moment - everyone decides for himself.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created to maintain stability in international monetary relations. Its official objectives, as set out in the IMF Charter, are cooperation in international monetary matters, assistance in stabilizing currencies, eliminating foreign exchange restrictions and creating a multilateral settlement system between countries, providing member countries with foreign exchange resources to eliminate temporary disturbances in their balance of payments. Since the beginning of the 80s. The IMF began to provide medium- and long-term loans (for 7-10 years) for “structural restructuring of the economy” to member countries carrying out radical economic and political reforms.

The IMF began its operations in March 1947 as a specialized agency of the UN. The location of the central office, Washington, has its branches and representative offices in a number of countries. The founders of the IMF were 44 countries; in 1999, its members were 182 states.

In governing bodies, votes are determined according to quotas. Each country has 250 votes plus 1 vote for every 100 thousand SDR units of its quota. Decisions are made by a simple majority (at least half) of votes, and on the most important issues - by a special majority (85% of votes are of a strategic nature, and 70% of an operational nature). Since the leading Western countries have the largest number of quotas in the IMF (USA - 17.5%, Japan - 6.3, Germany - 6.1, Great Britain and France - 5.1 each, Italy - 3.3%), and in general 25 economically developed countries - 62.8%, then these countries control and direct its activities in their interests. It should be noted that the United States, as well as EU countries (30.3%) can veto key decisions of the Fund, since their adoption requires a qualified majority of votes (85%). The role of other countries in decision-making is small, given their small quotas (Russia - 3.0%, China - 3.0%, Ukraine - 0.69%).

Authorized capital The IMF is formed from contributions from member states in accordance with a quota established for each country, which is determined based on the economic potential of the country and its place in the world economy and foreign trade.

In addition to its own capital, the IMF raises borrowed funds to expand its lending activities. To replenish credit resources, the IMF uses the following “mechanisms”:

General agreement on loans;

new loan agreements;

borrowing funds from IMF member states.

In 1962, the Fund signed with 10 economically developed countries (USA, Germany, UK, Japan, France, etc.) General agreement on loans, which provided for the provision of revolving loans to the Fund. This agreement was initially concluded for 4 years, and then began to be renewed every 5 years. The credit limit was initially set at $6.5 billion CIIIA, and in 1983 increased to SDR 17 billion ($23.3 billion). In order to overcome financial emergencies, the IMF Executive Board (Directorate) expanded the Fund's borrowing capabilities by approving in 1997 New Borrowing Agreements, under which the IMF can attract up to 34 billion SDR (about 45 billion US dollars). The IMF also resorts to obtaining loans from central banks (in particular, it has received a number of loans from the national banks of Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Japan and other countries).

The Fund, in turn, provides the funds received on loan terms for a certain period with payment of a certain percentage.

The most important activity of the Fund is its credit operations. According to the Charter. The IMF provides loans to member countries to restore equilibrium in their balance of payments and stabilize exchange rates. The IMF carries out lending operations only with official bodies of member countries: treasuries, central banks, stabilization funds.

A country in need of foreign currency or SDRs purchases them from the Fund in exchange for an equivalent amount in domestic currency, which is credited to the IMF account at the central bank of that country. Upon expiration of the established loan period, the country is obliged to perform the reverse operation, i.e., buy back the national currency in the special account from the Fund and return the received foreign currency or SDR. These types of loans are given for a period of up to 3 years and less often - 5 years. For the use of loans, the IMF charges a commission fee of 0.5% of the loan amount and an interest rate for the use of the loan, the amount of which is set on the basis of market rates in effect at the relevant time (most often it is 6-8% per annum). If the national currency of a debtor country held by the IMF is purchased by any member state, this is considered as repayment of debt to the Fund.

The size of loans provided by the Fund and the possibility of obtaining them are related to the fulfillment by the borrowing country of a number of conditions that are not always acceptable to these countries.

IMF since the early 50s. began to enter into agreements with member countries standby loan agreements, or stand-by agreements. Under such an agreement, a member country has the right to receive foreign currency from the IMF in exchange for national currency at any time, but on terms agreed with the Fund.

In order to provide assistance to IMF member countries experiencing difficulties in economic development for reasons beyond their control, as well as to assist in solving extensive problems of an economic and social nature. The Fund has created a number of special mechanisms that provide funds on foreign exchange terms. These include:

Compensatory and emergency financing mechanism, funds of which are allocated in connection with natural disasters that have befallen the country, unforeseen changes in world prices and other reasons;

Mechanism for financing buffer (reserve) stocks of raw materials created in accordance with international agreements;

External Debt Reduction and Service Facility, which provides funds to developing countries facing external debt crises;

A structural change support mechanism that focuses on countries transitioning to a market economy through radical economic and political reforms.

In addition to these currently functioning mechanisms, the IMF created temporary special funds that were designed to help overcome crisis currency situations that arose for various reasons (for example, an oil fund - to cover additional expenses due to a significant increase in prices for oil and petroleum products; a trust fund - to provide assistance to the poorest countries using proceeds from the sale of gold from the IMF reserves, etc.).

Russia became a member of the IMF in 1992. In terms of the size of the allocated quota (SDR 4.3 billion, or 3%) and the number of votes (43.4 thousand, or 2.9%), it took 9th place. Over the past years, Russia has received various types of loans from the Fund (reserve loans - stand-by, to support structural adjustment, etc.). In March 1996, the IMF Board of Governors approved the provision of an extended loan to Russia in the amount of $10.2 billion, which has already been used for the most part, including to repay the Fund's outstanding debt on previously provided loans. The total amount of Russia's debt to the Fund as of January 1, 1999 was $19.7 billion.

The World Bank Group includes the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and its three affiliates - the International Development Association (MAP), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

Headed by a single leadership, each of these institutions independently, at the expense of its own funds and on various conditions, finances investment projects and promotes the implementation of economic development programs in a number of countries.

International Monetary Fund- IMF, a financial institution of the United Nations. One of the main functions of the IMF is to issue loans to states to compensate for balance of payments deficits. The issuance of loans, as a rule, is linked to a set of measures recommended by the IMF to improve the economy.

The International Monetary Fund is special establishment UN. The head office is located in the capital of the United States - Washington.

The International Monetary Fund was founded in July 44 of the last century, but only in March 1947 it began its practice, issuing short-term and medium-term loans to needy countries in conditions of a lack of the country's balance of payments.

IMF independent organization, operating according to the charter itself, the goal is to establish cooperation between countries in the field of monetary finance, as well as stimulate international trade.

Functions of the IMF boils down to the following steps:

• promoting cooperation between states on financial policy issues;
• growth in the level of trade in the world services market;
• providing loans;
• balancing;
• advising debtor states;
• development of an international framework for monetary reporting and statistics;
• publication of statistics in the region.

The powers of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) include actions to form and issue financial reserves to participants using a special form “Special privileges for borrowing.” The IMF's resources come from the signatures, or “quotas,” of the fund's participants.

At the top of the IMF pyramid is the general board of managers, which includes the head and his deputy of the fund's member country. Most often, the role of manager is the minister of finance of the state, or the governor of the Central Bank. It is the meeting that decides all the main issues regarding the activities of the International Monetary Fund. The executive board, which consists of twenty-four directors, is responsible for formulating the fund's policies and carrying out its actions. The privilege of choosing the head is enjoyed by 8 countries that have the largest quota in the fund. These include almost all countries from the G8.

The IMF's Executive Board selects a steward for the next five years to lead the overall staff. From the second summer month 2011, the head of the IMF is Frenchman Christine Lagarde.

Impact of the International Monetary Fund on the global economy

The IMF issues loans to countries in a couple of cases: to pay off payment deficits and maintain macroeconomic stability of states. A country that needs additional foreign currency purchases it or borrows it, providing in exchange the same amount, only in the currency that is official in that country and is deposited into the IMF current account.

In order to strengthen international economic cooperation within the framework of international relations and the creation of prosperous economies, in 1944 such organizations as the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank. Despite similar ideas, the tasks and functions of the two organizations are somewhat different.

Thus, the IMF supports the development of international relations in the field of financial security by providing short- and medium-term loans, as well as advice on economic policy and maintaining financial stability.

In turn, the World Bank is taking measures to allow countries to achieve economic potential and also reduce the poverty threshold.

By collaborating in a variety of areas, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are helping countries reduce poverty by easing debt burdens. Twice a year, the organizations hold a joint meeting.

Cooperation between the IMF and Belarus began in July 1992. It was on this day that the Republic of Belarus became a member of the International Monetary Fund. Belarus' initial quota was just over SDR 280 million, which was later increased to SDR 386 million.

The IMF assists the Republic of Belarus in three vectors:

• cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Belarus on programs in the field of the national economy, focusing on tax, monetary and trade policies;
• provision of resources in the form of loans and;
• expert and technical assistance.

The IMF provided financial assistance to Belarus twice. So in 1992, the Republic of Belarus was provided with a loan in the amount of 217.2 million US dollars for systemic transformations in. And another 77.4 million under the stand-by loan agreement. By the beginning of 2005, the country had paid the IMF in full.

The second time, the country's leadership turned to the IMF in 2008, with a request to again provide lending through the stand-by system. The financing program was agreed upon in January 2009 and the Republic of Belarus was allocated 2.46 billion US dollars for a period of fifteen months. The amount was later increased to US$3.46 billion.

The implemented programs allowed the Republic of Belarus to maintain stability in the foreign exchange market, the stability of the financial system, avoid a balance of payments deficit and do the impossible - reduce it, reducing it to a minimum.

The Belarusian authorities are negotiating to receive a new IMF loan in the amount of $3 billion at 2.3% for a period of 10 years. To allocate a loan, the IMF calls on Belarus to implement a comprehensive strategy of economic reforms.

At the beginning of 2017, the main issues of the negotiations were changing housing and communal services tariffs and improving the work of the public sector of the economy. The IMF calls for a number of reforms in relation to state-owned enterprises in order to increase their productivity and efficiency, and also recommends defining a sequence of measures to achieve full cost recovery in the housing and communal services sector.

Increasing tariffs for housing and communal services and the privatization of state-owned enterprises are the key topics in negotiations with the IMF. From my side, foreign policy department The country believes that in matters of increasing tariffs in housing and communal services, as well as privatization of the public sector, we should move step by step.

As the IMF notes, great importance has an improvement in the country's business climate, including through accession to the WTO and the development of competition in product markets. The country also needs to conduct careful monetary policy to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an intergovernmental organization designed to regulate monetary relations between states and provide financial assistance to member countries to eliminate currency difficulties caused by imbalances in the balance of payments. The IMF was established at the International Monetary and Financial Conference (July 1-22, 1944) in Bretton Woods (USA, New Hampshire). The Foundation began its practical activities on March 1, 1947.

The USSR also took part in the Bretton Woods Conference. However, subsequently, due to " cold war"between East and West, he did not ratify the Agreement on the formation of the IMF. For the same reason, during the 50-60s, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Cuba left the IMF. As a result of deep socio-economic and political reforms in the early 90s former socialist countries, as well as states that were previously part of the USSR, joined the IMF (with the exception of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Cuba).

Currently, 182 countries are members of the IMF (see Fig. 4). Any country that conducts independent foreign policy and ready to accept the rights and obligations provided for by the IMF Charter.

The official objectives of the IMF are to:

• promote balanced growth of international trade;
• maintain the stability of currency exchange rates;
• promote the creation of a multilateral settlement system for current transactions between members of the Fund and the elimination of currency restrictions that impede the growth of international trade;
• provide member countries with credit resources that allow them to regulate the imbalance of temporary payments without the use of restrictive measures in the field of foreign trade and payments;
• serve as a forum for consultation and cooperation on international monetary issues.

Responsible for the smooth operation of the global currency and payment system, the Fund devotes Special attention the state of liquidity on a global scale, i.e. the level and composition of reserves available to member states and intended to cover trade and payment needs. One of important functions The Fund is also providing additional liquid funds to its members through distribution special rights borrowing (SDR). SDR (or SDR) is an international currency unit of account, used as a conventional scale for measuring international demands and obligations, establishing currency parity and exchange rates, as an international means of payment and reserve. The SDR value is determined based on average cost five major currencies of the world (before January 1, 1981 - sixteen currencies). The specific weight of each currency is determined taking into account the country's share in international trade, but for the US dollar it is taken into account specific gravity in international payments. To date, 21.4 billion SDRs have been issued with a total value of about 29 billion US dollars, which is about 2% of all reserves.

The Fund has significant general resources to finance temporary disequilibria in the balance of payments of its members. To use them, a member must provide the Fund with a compelling justification for the need, which may be related to the balance of payments, reserve position, or changes in reserves. The IMF provides its resources on the basis of equality and non-discrimination, taking into account the social and domestic political objectives of member countries. The Fund's policy gives them the opportunity to use IMF financing already at early stage the emergence of balance of payments problems.

At the same time, the Fund’s assistance helps to overcome the imbalance of payments without the use of trade and payment restrictions. The Fund plays a catalytic role, as changes in the policies pursued by states in implementing IMF-supported programs help attract additional financial assistance from other sources. Finally, the Fund acts as a financial intermediary, ensuring the redistribution of funds from those countries where there is a surplus to countries where there is a deficit.

IMF governance structure

1. Supreme governing body is the Board of Governors, in which each member country is represented by a governor and his deputy. In most cases, the Fund's managers are ministers of finance, or heads of central banks, or other persons of similar position. The Board of Governors elects a chairman from among its members. The competence of the council includes decisions on the most important, fundamental issues activities of the IMF, such as the admission and exclusion of members of the Fund, the determination and revision of quotas, the distribution of net income, and the election of executive directors. The Governors meet in session to discuss the activities of the Fund once a year, but they may vote at any time by mail.

The IMF is structured as joint stock company, and therefore the ability of each participant to influence its activities is determined by its share in the capital. In accordance with this, the IMF operates the principle of the so-called “weighted” number of votes: each member country has 250 “basic” votes (regardless of the size of the contribution to the Fund’s capital) and an additional one vote for every 100 thousand SDR units of its share in this capital. In addition, when voting on certain issues, creditor countries receive an additional one vote for every 400 thousand US dollars of loans provided by them on voting day, due to a corresponding reduction in the number of votes of debtor countries. This arrangement leaves the final say in the management of the IMF's affairs to the countries that have invested the most in it.

Decisions in the IMF Board of Governors are mainly made by a simple majority (at least half) of votes, and on the most important issues (for example, amendments to the Charter, establishment and revision of the size of the shares of member countries in capital, a number of issues of the functioning of the SDR mechanism, policy in the field of exchange rates, etc.) by a “special (qualified) majority”, which currently provides for two categories: 70% and 85% of the total votes of member countries.

The current IMF Charter provides that the Board of Governors may decide to establish a new permanent governing body, the Council at the ministerial level of member countries, to oversee the regulation and adaptation of the global monetary system. But it has not yet been created, and its role is played by the 22-member Interim Committee of the Board of Governors on the World Monetary System, established in 1974. However, unlike the proposed Council, the Interim Committee does not have the power to make policy decisions.

2. The Board of Governors delegates many of its powers to the Executive Board, i.e. The Directorate, which is responsible for the conduct of the affairs of the Foundation and operates from its headquarters in Washington.

3. The IMF Executive Board appoints a managing director, who heads the administrative apparatus of the Fund and is in charge of day-to-day affairs. Traditionally, the managing director must be European or (at least) non-American. Since 2000, the Managing Director of the IMF is Horst Keller (Germany).

4. The IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics, which includes representatives of industrialized and developing countries. It develops recommendations for the wider use of statistics in the compilation of balances of payments, coordinates the implementation of a basic statistical survey of portfolio investment and carries out studies on the recording of flows associated with financial means of a derivational nature.

Capital. The IMF's capital is made up of subscription contributions from member countries. Each country has a quota expressed in SDR. A member country's quota is the most important element of its financial and organizational relations with the Foundation. First, the quota determines the number of votes in the Fund. Secondly, the size of the quota is based on the extent of access of an IMF member to the financial resources of the organization in accordance with established limits. Third, the quota determines the IMF member's share in the allocation of SDRs. The Charter does not provide methods for determining quotas for IMF members. At the same time, from the very beginning, the size of quotas was associated, although not on a rigid basis, with such economic factors as national income and the volume of foreign trade and payments. The Ninth General Review of Quotas used a set of five formulas agreed upon during the Eighth General Review to produce “estimated quotas,” which provide a broad measure of the relative position of IMF members in the global economy. These formulas use economic data on a state's gross domestic product (GDP), current transactions, fluctuations in current receipts, and government reserves.

The United States, being the country with the highest economic performance, made the largest contribution to the IMF, amounting to about 18% of the total amount of quotas (about 35 billion US dollars); Palau, which joined the IMF in December 1997, has the smallest quota and has contributed about US$3.8 million.

Until 1978, 25% of the quota was paid in gold, currently - in reserve assets (SDRs or freely usable currencies); 75% of the subscription amount is in national currency, usually provided to the Fund in the form of promissory notes.

The IMF Charter provides that in addition to its own capital, which is the main source of financing its activities, the Fund also has the ability to use borrowed funds in any currency and from any source, i.e. borrow them both from official bodies and on the private capital market. To date, the IMF has received loans from the treasuries and central banks of member countries, as well as from Switzerland, which was not a member until May 1992, and from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). As for the private money market, he has not yet resorted to its services.

IMF lending activities. The IMF's financial transactions are carried out only with official bodies of member countries - treasuries, central banks, and currency stabilization funds. The Fund's funds can be made available to its members through a range of approaches and mechanisms, differing mainly in the types of problems of financing the balance of payments deficit, as well as the level of conditions put forward by the IMF. Moreover, these conditions are a composite criterion that includes three separate elements: the state of the balance of payments, the balance of international reserves and the dynamics of the reserve position of countries. These three elements that determine the need for balance of payments financing are considered independent and each of them can form the basis for submitting a request for financing to the Fund.

A country in need of foreign currency purchases freely usable currency, or SDRs, in exchange for an equivalent amount of its domestic currency, which is deposited into an IMF account at the country's central bank.

The IMF charges borrowing countries a one-time fee of 0.5% of the transaction amount and a fee, or interest rate, for the loans it provides, which is based on market rates.

After the expiration of the established period, the member country is obliged to carry out the reverse operation - to buy back its national currency from the Fund, returning to it the borrowed funds. Typically, this operation, which in practice means the repayment of a previously received loan, must be carried out within a period of 3 1/4 to 5 years from the date of purchase of the currency. In addition, the borrowing country must repurchase its excess currency for the Fund ahead of schedule as its balance of payments improves and foreign exchange reserves increase. Loans are also considered repaid if the national currency of the debtor country held by the IMF is purchased by another member state.

Member countries' access to IMF credit resources is limited by certain nuances. According to the original Charter, they were as follows: firstly, the amount of currency received by a member country in the twelve months preceding its new application to the Fund, including the amount requested, should not exceed 25% of the country's quota; secondly, the total amount of a given country’s currency in the IMF’s assets could not exceed 200% of its quota (including 75% of the quota contributed to the Fund by subscription). The revised Charter in 1978 removed the first limitation. This allowed member countries to exercise their ability to obtain currency from the IMF for a shorter period than the five years previously required. As for the second condition, in exceptional circumstances its operation may be suspended.

Technical assistance. The International Monetary Fund also provides technical assistance to member countries. It is carried out through sending missions to central banks, ministries of finance and statistical authorities of the countries that requested such assistance, sending experts to these bodies for 2-3 years, conducting an examination of the legislative documents being prepared. Technical assistance is expressed in the IMF's assistance to member countries in the field of monetary, exchange rate policy and banking supervision, statistics, development of financial and economic legislation and personnel training.