The lending criteria applied by the IMF and the World Bank have been converging for some time. Considering also that since the floating of exchange rates in the early seventies the IMF seems to have lost in importance as a monetary institution, debate is growing on the question of whether the...

Although the main responsibility for carrying out economic reforms in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe lies with these countries themselves, the transformation of the Soviet-style economic system into a market economy must be made easier by support from abroad. In this the...

A fundamental change is emerging in the World Bank's perception of the problems of the debt overhang and in its ideas for development strategies. The author examines the implications for debtor countries.

Following the introduction of its structural adjustment loans the World Bank became the object of the criticism that had until then been directed only at the IMF and its stabilisation and adjustment programmes. This article shows that structural adjustment loans do in fact take the traditional...

The World Bank is a genuine investment agency. This fact seems to be self-evident, yet not fully realized by a larger public. At present, the World Bank (IBRD), together with its affiliate, the International Development Association (IDA), is also a multilateral development institution, the...

In the World Bank’s last annual report the Federal Republic of Germany was described as a leading member of the World Bank Group (IBRD, IFC and IDA). The Federal Republic has subscribed about $ 1.4 bn to the capital of the World Bank and to date contributed $ 1.1 bn to IDA. The second German...