2. Introduction
• The International
Monetary Fund (IMF)
is an international
organization that was
initiated in 1944 at
Conference
the Bretton Wodds
and
formally created in
1945 by 24 member
countries.
3. Introduction
• The IMF is a self-described
"organization of 189
countries, working to foster
global
cooperation,
financial stability,
monetary
secure
facilitate
international trade,
promote high employment
and sustainable economic
growth, and reduce poverty
around the world.”
4. Official Goal
• The IMF's stated goal was
to assist in the
reconstruction of the
world's International
payment system post–
World War II. Countries
contribute funds to a pool
through a quota system
from which countries with
imbalances
borrow
other
payment
temporarily can
money and
resources.
5. Official goal
• As of the 14th General Review
of Quotas in late 2010 the
fund stood at SDR476.8bn, or
about US$755.7bn at then-
current exchange rates.
Through this fund, and other
activities 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.
6.
7. The IMF’s responsibilities
• The IMF's primary
purpose is to ensure the
of the
monetary
system
rates
of
and
stability
international
system—the
exchange
international
enables
payments
countries
that
(and their citizens) to
transact with each other.
8. The IMF’s responsibilities
• Surveillance: To maintain
stability and prevent crises in
the international monetary
system, the IMF reviews
country policies and national,
regional, and global economic
and financial developments
through a formal system
known as surveillance. The IMF
advises its 189 member
countries, encouraging policies
that foster economic stability,
reduce vulnerability to
economic and financial crises,
and raise living standards.
9. The IMF’s responsibilities
• Financial Assistance: IMF
financing provides member
countries the breathing room
they need to correct balance of
payments problems. A policy
supported by IMF
program
financing is designed by the
national authorities in close
cooperation with the IMF, and
continued financial support is
conditioned on effective
implementation of this program.
10. The IMF’s responsibilities
• Technical Assistance: The IMF
provides technical assistance
and training to help member
countries strengthen their
capacity to design and
implement effective policies.
Technical assistance is offered
in several areas, including tax
expenditure
policy and administration,
management,
monetary and exchange rate
policies, banking and financial
system supervision and
regulation, legislative
frameworks, and statistics.
11. Resources
• The primary source of the
IMF's financial resources is its
members’ quotas, which
broadly reflect members’
relative position in the world
economy. Currently, total
quota resources amount to
about SDR 238 billion (about
$368 billion). In addition, the
IMF can borrow temporarily to
supplement its quota
resources.
12. Governance and organization
• The IMF is accountable to the
governments of its member
countries. At the top of its
organizational structure is the
Board of Governors, which
consists of one Governor and one
Alternate Governor from each
member country. The Board of
Governors meets once each year
at the IMF – World Bank Annual
Meetings. Twenty-four of the
Governors sit on the
International Monetary and
Financial Committee (IMFC) and
normally meet twice each year.
13. Governance and organization
• The day-to-day work of the IMF
is overseen by its 24-member
executive board, which
represents the entire
membership; this work is guided
by the IMFC and supported by
the IMF staff. A proposed
Amendment of the IMF’s Articles
of Agreement will introduce for
the first time an Executive Board
whose members are all elected.
The Managing Director is the
head of the IMF Staff and
Chairman of the Executive Board
and is assisted by four Deputy
Managing Directors.
14.
15. Food Prices and the Multiplier Effect of Trade Policy
The relationship between trade policy and food prices. when
individuals are loss averse, governments may use trade
policy to shield the domestic economy from large food price
shocks.
This creates a complementarity between the price of food in
international markets and trade policy.
Specifically, unilateral actions give rise to a "multiplier
effect": when a shock drives up the price of food, exporters
respond by imposing restrictions
while importers wind down protection, thus exacerbating
the initial shock and soliciting further trade policy activism.
16. Trade measures across 77 countries and 33 food products
for the period 2008-11, finding evidence of a multiplier
effect in food trade policy.
These findings contribute to inform the broader debate on
the proper regulation of food trade policy within the
multilateral trading system.
Food trade policy when agents are averse to losses.
The IMF theory predicts that exporting (importing)
governments offer export subsidies (import tariffs) when
food prices are low and set export taxes (import subsidies)
when prices are high.
17. World Food Prices and Monetary Policy
The dramatic swings in world commodity prices in recent years have renewed
interest in the issue of how monetary policy in small open economies should
react to imported price shocks.
This connection is that of how far monetary policy should lean against the wind
of shocks to relative world food prices. With food having a large weight and low
substitutability in the representative consumption basket.
That stabilizing the producer price index (PPI) is the desirable policy once the
monopolistic competition distortion is offset with a suitable tax.
