The Role of the IMF: A Guide to the Reports

Many of the discussions on a new international financial architecture that were spawned by the east Asian crisis have dealt with the future role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This policy brief starts by summarizing the recommendations of five recent reports and one speech, and the reasoning that lies behind them. These recommendations are divided into four major areas: 1) the scope of Fund activities, 2) surveillance, 3) lending, and 4) governance (on which topic I also summarize the views of a recent academic paper). I offer my own verdict on the first three of these topics in the last section of this brief.