International Monetary Fund

The IMF is an organization of 185 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

The International Monetary Fund was formally created in July 1944 during the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. The representatives of 44 governments met in the Mount Washington Hotel in the area of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States of America, with the delegates to the conference agreeing on a framework for international economic cooperation. The IMF was formally organised on December 27, 1945, when the first 29 countries signed its Articles of Agreement.

The work of the IMF is of three main types. Surveillance involves the monitoring of economic and financial developments, and the provision of policy advice, aimed especially at crisis prevention. The IMF also lends to countries with balance of payments difficulties, to provide temporary financing and to support policies aimed at correcting the underlying problems; loans to low-income countries are also aimed especially at poverty reduction. Third, the IMF provides countries with technical assistance and training in its areas of expertise. Supporting all three of these activities is IMF work in economic research and statistics.

Provides financial assistance and advice to member countries. This article will discuss the main functions of the organization, which has become an enduring institution integral to the creation of financial markets worldwide and to the growth of developing countries.

The IMF also offers technical assistance to transitional economies, such as the former Soviet Republics, in the changeover from centrally planned to market run economies. The IMF also offers emergency funds to collapsed economies, as it did for Korea during the 1997 financial crisis in Asia. The funds were injected into Korea's foreign reserves in order to boost the local currency, thereby helping the country avoid a damaging devaluation. Emergency funds can also be loaned to countries that have faced economic crisis as a result of a natural disaster.