What is the IMF?

2009-04-09 15:45:02 -

Basic facts about the International Monetary Fund
_ The IMF was conceived at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire, where representatives of 45 countries agreed on a framework for economic cooperation to avoid a repeat of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
_ The IMF's job is to ensure exchange rate stability and, by doing that, to support world trade. It oversaw a system of fixed exchange rates until that was abandoned in 1971.
_ The IMF makes loans to member countries that run into difficulties with their currencies and public finances. The loans include requirements to straighten out a country's finances _ including potentially unpopular cuts in government spending.
_ The IMF is run by its member countries through a board of governors. It gets its money from quotas that countries deposit when they join.