On May 21, 2008, the Executive Board discussed the report of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) on 'Aspects of IMF Corporate Governance - Including the Role of the Executive Board'. The Joint Statement issued by the Executive Board and the Managing Director following the Board discussion...

This paper reviews progress under the Fund's strengthened cooperative strategy on overdue financial obligations. Since the last review, total arrears to the Fund declined by SDR 17.5 million to SDR 1,309.5 million. Payments to the Fund by Sudan and Zimbabwe were in excess of new obligations...

The author-a top decision maker at the IMF for two decades-first focuses on the system of quotas and voting power in the IMF and concludes that it calls for reforms to enhance equity among the membership. He then examines decision making in the Executive Board, with an emphasis on consensus...

This book offers the first systematic discussion of a new and promising field: the economics of independence, accountability and governance of financial supervision institutions. For a long time the design of supervision had been an irrelevant issue, both in theory and practice. This perception...

Full text also available in: Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. The global economy is expanding moderately but the outlook has weakened further since October, and risks have increased. The global economy has been impaired from growth that has been too slow for too long, and...

The role of trade in the global economy is at a critical juncture. Increased trade integration helped to drive economic growth in advanced and developing economies in the latter part of the 20th century. Since the early 2000's, however, a slowdown in the pace of trade reform, a post-crisis...

In some countries, corrupt politicians appear to choose investment projects based on the opportunity for bribes and kickbacks these projectspresent. This paper contends that such corruption increases the numberof capital projects undertaken and trends to enlarge their size andcomplexity. The...

Aid for trade can support countries trying to further benefit from the expanding global market place by helping to address poorly performing infrastructure and institutions. Needless to say, good policies also matter: trade liberalization, improving incentives for private investment in trade,...