International Monetary Fund (IMF) - News conference - U.S. Article IV consultation

DATE: June 16, 2014


EVENT: International Monetary Fund (IMF) holds a news conference on the release of the concluding statement of the U.S. Article IV consultation, the IMF's annual check-up of the U.S. economy.

PARTICIPANTS: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde; IMF Western Hemisphere Director Alejandro Werner; U.S. Mission Chief Nigel Chalk for IMF; and IMF North America Division Chief Roberto Cardarelli

LOCATION: IMF Headquarters 2, 1900 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Conference Hall 2, Washington, D.C.


http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2014/6/13/international_monetary_fund_imf_-_news.htm

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

IMF Weighs Options To Quota Reform

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is urging the United States Congress to ratify quota and governance reforms, agreed four years ago, to further strengthen the representation of emerging economies and enhance the participation of low-income countries.

The United States, the largest member of the IMF with a current quota of SDR 42.1 billion (about US$65 billion), must ratify the package of reforms for it to enter into effect.

The International Monetary and Finance Committee said if that is not done by year end, it would devise alternatives.

"We are deeply disappointed with the continued delay in progressing the IMF quota and governance reforms agreed to by 2010," said the Committee, a ministerial advisory body to the board of the IMF, in a communiqué following a meeting on Saturday.

"We reaffirm the importance of the IMF as a quota-based institution," it said, adding that, "the implementation of the 2010 reforms remains our highest priority and we urge the United States to ratify these reforms at the earliest opportunity," said the statement issued by the 24-member Finance Committee, chaired by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

"We are committed to maintaining a strong and adequately resourced IMF. If the 2010 reforms are not ratified by year end, we will call on the IMF to build on its existing work and develop options for next steps, and we will schedule a discussion of these options," it said.

Officials said those options could weaken the US' ability to influence the global economy and lead to a more fragmented world.

The US' failure to ratify the reforms had been a sticking point throughout the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington last week.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, as part of the global policy agenda presented semi-annually to the Finance Committee, listed the delay in implementation of the reforms as one of the critical policy challenges of the Fund.

She said that as a result of the delays, the January 2014 deadline for completing the 15th general review of quotas had to be postponed to January 2015.

"There are important commitments that were made by the entire membership back in 2010, to be delivered in 2012," she said. "We're in 2014 and it hasn't happened yet."

Lagarde, expressing optimism that the US would ratify the reforms soon, said, "It is important because it matters for the credibility of the institution."

On December 15, 2010, the board of governors, the IMF's highest decision-making body, approved a package of far-reaching reforms of the fund's quotas and governance.

Once implemented, it will result in a 100 per cent increase in total quotas and a major realignment of quota shares to better reflect the changing relative weights of the IMF's member countries.

Among other benefits, the doubling of quotas would shift more than six per cent of quota shares from over-represented to under-represented member countries.


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