The IMF was created within the framework. International Monetary Fund (IMF). IMF requirements for Ukraine

The International Monetary Fund, the IMF is primarily a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), headquartered in Washington DC, USA. It is worth noting that although the IMF was created with the support of the UN, it is an independent organization.

The International Monetary Fund was created relatively recently - at the Bretton Woods Conference, on monetary and financial issues on July 22, 1944, the basis of the agreement was developed ( IMF charter).

The most significant contribution to the development of the concept of the IMF was made by John Maynard Keynes, who led the British delegation, and Harry Dexter White, a senior official of the US Treasury. The final version of the agreement was signed by the first 29 states on December 27, 1945 - the official date of the creation of the IMF. The IMF began operations on March 1, 1947 as part of the Bretton Woods system. In the same year, France took the first loan. Currently, the IMF unites 187 states, and 2,500 people from 133 countries work in its structures.

The IMF provides short - and medium-term loans with a deficit in the balance of payments of the state. The provision of loans is usually accompanied by a set of conditions and recommendations aimed at improving the situation.

The policy and recommendations of the IMF in relation to developing countries have been repeatedly criticized, the essence of which is that the implementation of the recommendations and conditions is ultimately aimed not at increasing the independence, stability and development of the national economy of the state, but only tying it to international financial flows.

international monetary fund lending

1. The Fundamental Purposes and Functions of the IMF and the Structure of Governance

The main objectives of the International Monetary Fund are:

1. "the need to promote international cooperation in the monetary and financial sphere";

2. "promoting the expansion and balanced growth of international trade" in the interests of developing productive resources, achieving a high level of employment and real incomes of member states;

3. "Ensuring the stability of currencies, maintaining orderly monetary relations among member states" and striving to prevent "depreciation of currencies in order to obtain competitive advantages";

4. assistance in the creation of a multilateral system of settlements between member states, as well as in the elimination of currency restrictions;

5. temporary provision of foreign exchange funds to Member States, which would enable them to "correct imbalances in their balance of payments".

The main functions of the IMF are:

1. promoting international cooperation in monetary policy

2. expansion of world trade

3. lending

4. stabilization of monetary exchange rates

5. advising debtor countries

6. development of international financial statistics standards

7. collection and publication of international financial statistics

The supreme governing body of the IMF is the Board of Governors, in which each member country is represented by a governor and his deputy. Usually these are finance ministers or central bankers. The Council is responsible for resolving key issues of the Fund's activities: amending the Articles of the Agreement, admitting and expelling member countries, determining and revising their shares in the capital, and electing executive directors. The Governors meet in session, usually once a year, but may meet and vote by mail at any time.

The authorized capital is about 217 billion SDR (special unit for the right to draw) (as of January 2011, 1 SDR was equal to approximately 1.5 US dollars). It is formed by contributions from member countries, each of which usually pays approximately 25% of its quota in SDRs or in the currency of other members, and the remaining 75% in its national currency. Based on the size of quotas, votes are distributed among member countries in the governing bodies of the IMF.

The largest number of votes in the IMF (as of June 16, 2010) are: the United States - 17.8%; Germany - 5.99%; Japan - 6.13%; UK - 4.95%; France - 4.95%; Saudi Arabia - 3.22%; Italy - 4.18%; Russia - 2.74%. The share of 15 EU member countries is 30.3%, 29 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have a total of 60.35% of the votes in the IMF. The share of other countries, which make up over 84% of the number of members of the Fund, accounts for only 39.75%.

The IMF operates the principle of "weighted" number of votes: the ability of member countries to influence the activities of the Fund by voting is determined by their share in its capital. Each state has 250 "basic" votes, regardless of the size of its contribution to the capital, and an additional one vote for every 100 thousand SDRs of the amount of this contribution. In the event that a country bought (sold) the SDRs it received during the initial issue of SDRs, the number of its votes increases (reduces) by 1 for every 400,000 purchased (sold) SDRs. This correction is carried out by no more than 1/4 of the number of votes received for the country's contribution to the Fund's capital. This arrangement ensures a decisive majority of votes for the leading states.

Decisions in the Board of Governors are usually taken by a simple majority (at least half) of the votes, and on important issues of an operational or strategic nature - by a "special majority" (respectively 70 or 85% of the votes of the member countries).

Despite some reduction in the share of US and EU votes, they can still veto key decisions of the Fund, the adoption of which requires a maximum majority (85%). This means that the United States, together with the leading Western states, has the ability to exercise control over the decision-making process in the IMF and direct its activities based on their own interests. With coordinated action, developing countries are also in a position to avoid making decisions that do not suit them. However, reaching agreement is difficult for a large number of heterogeneous countries, so the intention was to "enhance the ability of developing countries and countries with economies in transition to participate more effectively in the decision-making mechanism in the IMF."

The International Monetary and Financial Committee plays a significant role in the organizational structure of the IMF. It consists of 24 IMF governors, including from Russia, and meets in its sessions twice a year. This committee is an advisory body of the Board of Governors and does not have the power to make policy decisions. However, it performs important functions:

ь guides the activities of the Executive Council;

l develops strategic decisions related to the functioning of the world monetary system and the activities of the IMF;

b Submits proposals to the Board of Governors to amend the Articles of Agreement of the IMF.

A similar role is also played by the Development Committee - the Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the WB and the Fund.

The Board of Governors delegates many of its powers to the Executive Board, a directorate that is responsible for the conduct of the affairs of the IMF, which includes a wide range of political, operational, and administrative matters, such as lending to member countries and overseeing their policies. exchange rate.

The IMF's Executive Board elects for a five-year term a Managing Director who leads the Fund's staff (as of March 2009, about 2,478 people from 143 countries). He must be a representative of one of the European countries. Managing Director (since November 2007) - Dominique Strauss-Kahn (France), his first deputy - John Lipsky (USA).

Head of the IMF Resident Mission in Russia - Neven Mates.

Manager. Elected by the Executive Board, the IMF Governor chairs the Executive Board and is the organization's head of staff. Under the direction of the Executive Board, the Governor is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the IMF. The Governor is appointed for five years and may be re-elected for a subsequent term.

Staff. The Articles of Agreement require staff appointed to the IMF to demonstrate the highest standards of professionalism and technical competence, and reflect the international nature of the institution. Approximately 125 nations are represented among the organization's 2,300 employees.

The International Monetary Fund is a financial institution, despite the status of a UN special agency, which has gained notoriety. What is the IMF like, what are its functions according to the founding documents and in practice, how fair are the critics who call the fund's financial assistance disastrous for the economy of the lending countries?

The creation of the IMF, the goals of the fund

The concept of a monetary fund, whose mission will be to support financial stability throughout the world, called the "Charter of the IMF" was developed in July 1944 in the course of the Bretton Woods Conference under the auspices of the United Nations, which resolved issues of international financial and monetary interaction after the emerging end of World War II. war.

The date of creation of the IMF (English IMF, or International Monetary Fund) was December 27, 1945 - on this day, representatives of the first 29 countries of the IMF officially signed the final version of the corresponding agreement. De facto, the activities of the organization began only on March 1, 1947, when France took the first IMF loan. Today, the IMF unites 188 states, and the headquarters of the fund is located in Washington.

According to Article 1 of the IMF Charter, the International Monetary Fund has the following objectives:

promotion of cooperation of all countries in the monetary and financial sphere, joint solution of financial problems;

assistance in achieving and maintaining a high level of real incomes and employment of the population of the countries of the world, strengthening and developing the industrial and productive potential of all Member States without exception through the expansion and growth of international trade;

maintaining the stability of the currencies of the member states, preventing the devaluation of national currencies;

assistance in the formation and functioning of a multilateral settlement system for financial transactions between member countries, in the abolition of foreign exchange restrictions that stand in the way of the growth of world trade;

by providing financial assistance to Member States to enable them to correct imbalances in their balance of payments without introducing measures that could harm their national welfare;

to reduce the duration of imbalances in the balance of payments of member countries, while reducing the scale of these violations.

It is noteworthy that the so-called financial assistance of the fund is provided exclusively in the form of loans, but they are not provided for the implementation of specific projects. The interest on them is small (0.5% per annum), however, lending often does not contribute to the development of the real sector of the economy and the production of competitive products. Shown below is the provision of the fund to various countries since 1972 for 40 years, i.e. from expiration date:

In the first post-war years, Europe was the main borrower of the fund to restore the economy that had suffered during the war. Since the early 1980s, the focus has shifted towards Latin America and Asia, and since the 1990s, Russia and the CIS countries have also played a significant role in loans. Ukraine is still in constant contact with the fund. Finally, since the 2000s, loans have been coming back to Europe, mainly Eastern.

It is noteworthy that the time before the year was the most favorable in the world and the least favorable for the fund - very few loans were required, respectively, the influence of the IMF on the world economy and politics greatly decreased. However, already in 2011, lending quickly recovered its volumes, which continued to grow further, including in connection with the Cypriot and Greek crisis.

From the graph, the IMF policy is clearly visible - to help all (not just poor) countries, focusing on current problems. At the same time, by the way, the complete or almost complete absence of loans to African countries is interesting. Any country in the IMF is either a borrower of the fund, receiving and paying off the loan, or its creditor in accordance with its quota. It can be seen that in addition to the decline before the last global crisis, the average historical amount of loans grew over time - compared to the end of the 80s, Europe in 2012 borrowed about 5-6 times more.

In what currency are loans calculated? The fact is that the IMF has its own non-cash means of payment, called "special drawing rights" (Eng. Special Drawing Rights, SDR). The scale at the top is in billions of SDRs. Formally, it is neither a debt obligation nor a currency.

The SDR rate has been pegged to a basket of 5 currencies since 2016 and is similar to . Nevertheless, there are differences - perhaps the main one is the presence of the Chinese yuan in the amount of almost 11% due to a decrease in the share of the euro. At the time of this article, the SDR exchange rate is 1.45 US dollars. You can see it, for example, here: http://bankir.ru/kurs/sdr-k-dollar-ssha/.

Functions of the IMF

The list of modern functions of the International Monetary Fund largely coincides with the 1st article of the IMF Charter:

expansion of international trade;

assistance to countries in the form of loans;

promotion of interstate interaction in monetary policy;

assistance in the preparation (education, internship) of economic personnel;

stabilization of exchange rates;

advising debtor countries;

development and implementation of world financial statistics standards;

collection, processing and publication of said statistics.

It is interesting that prominent economists criticize not only the methods of the IMF's work with debtor countries (that is, those with outstanding debts to the organization), but also the quality of the statistics published by the fund, as well as analytical reports.

Structure of the International Monetary Fund

The management of the fund and decisions on issuing loans are carried out by:

The Board of Governors is the name of the highest governing body of the International Monetary Fund. It consists of two authorized persons from each Member State - the manager and his deputy;

An executive board of 24 directors who represent certain member states or groups of countries. The head of the executive body - the managing director is invariably the plenipotentiary of Europe, and his first deputy is a US citizen. Eight directors are delegated by the states with the largest quotas in the IMF, the remaining 16 are elected by other participating countries, divided into the corresponding number of groups;

The International Monetary and Financial Committee is formally an advisory body consisting of twenty-four governors, including a representative of the Russian Federation. Performs, in particular, the function of developing strategic decisions regarding the global monetary and financial system;

The IMF Development Committee is another advisory body with similar functions.

Capitalization of the IMF and sources of funds of the fund

As of March 1, 2016, the size of the authorized capital of the IMF was about 467.2 billion SDR. The capital is formed by contributions to the currency fund of the member countries, paying as a rule 25% of the quota in SDR (or one of the world currencies) and the remaining 75% in their own national currency. Quotas are constantly reviewed - since the beginning of the fund's activities, there have already been 15 revisions. In 2015, there was another change with the delegation of about 6% from developed countries towards developing ones.

Important: almost all real decisions are made by a majority of 85% of the votes. At the same time, approximately 17 percent of the quota (for 2016, a contribution of about 42 billion SDRs) belongs to the United States of America, giving them an exclusive right of veto. Japan, which is in second place, has a quota almost three times lower - about 6%. The share of Russia is 2.7% (a contribution of about 6.5 billion SDR). So it is extremely difficult to call the critics of the organization who claim “the IMF is the USA” wrong or biased.




In fact, the United States and the European Union, which often supports them, have a sufficient quota in the IMF to make the vast majority of decisions. The efforts of China, Russia and India to increase quotas in the fund in accordance with the increased weight of these countries in the world economy are opposed by the United States and its allies, who do not want to lose political influence on other IMF countries through the "conditionality" of loans - presenting debtor states with mandatory political - economic requirements.

Nevertheless, one should not think that the financial problems of countries are solved only with the help of IMF money. For example, a recent loan to Greece of more than 300 billion euros was financed by the IMF by less than 10% and, in euro terms, amounted to only about 20 billion euros. A much larger amount - 130 billion € - was allocated by the European Financial Stability Fund, created in June 2010.

In addition to the quotas paid by the participating countries, the sources of financial resources of the monetary fund are:

gold holdings, officially around 90.5 million ounces and valued at SDR 3.2 billion. The organization accepts gold from the participating countries mainly as payment for interest on loans, after which it has the right to send it to finance new loan tranches;

loans from “financially secure” member states;

funds from donor trust funds and credit lines that the G7 and G20 countries open to the fund.

Russia joined the IMF in June 1992, immediately resorting to obtaining a loan. According to eyewitnesses, during one of his first visits to the Kremlin, Clinton was struck by the luxury of the halls and said to a colleague: "Are these people asking us for money?" For 6 years (from August 1992 to the beginning of August 1998), Russia borrowed more than $ 32 billion from the fund in total - however, loans did not help us achieve either the projected reduction in inflation or prevent the August default of 1998. Russia returned the loan from 2000 to 2005 years, taking advantage of rising oil prices, and since 2005 has become a creditor of the fund. The table below shows the distribution of loans in the 1990s and the lender's claims on Russia:




Financial aid or credit needle?

Many experts argue that the recommendations of the creditor fund to IMF borrowing countries de facto fundamentally contradict the principles and goals declared by the Charter. Instead of developing the productive potential of the borrowing countries, they get hooked on the credit needle, while the real incomes of the population do not increase - they fall.

Critics of the fund explain that the conditions for receiving IMF loans are often:

deprivation of the borrowing state of the right to free issue of the national currency;

total privatization, including in areas of natural monopolies (housing and communal services, railway transport);

rejection of protectionist measures to protect domestic producers, support for small and medium businesses;

freedom of movement of capital, allowing their outflow abroad;

cuts in spending on social programs, the elimination of benefits for vulnerable segments of the population, the reduction of salaries in the public sector and pensions.

However, these measures often only exacerbate the crisis in the economy, the impoverishment / impoverishment of the population leads to a decrease in consumption, leading to a decline in production, bankruptcy of enterprises and a deterioration in the filling of the state budget. As a result, the government has to take new loans to pay off the previous ones.

Countries hardest hit by IMF dependency:

Rwanda, where the rejection of state support for farming and the devaluation of the national currency led to a drop in incomes of the population, pushing it into the abyss of a civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis with 1.5 million victims;

Yugoslavia, which collapsed due to problems with the economic alignment of the regions;

Argentina, which declared twice;

Mexico is the birthplace of domesticated corn, which has turned from an exporter of this agricultural crop into an importer.

According to forecasts, this list may be replenished with Ukraine, which is being forced by the creditor fund to raise gas prices. Its rise in price not only hits the pockets of citizens, but also finally nullifies the competitiveness of Ukrainian producers, which has already been undermined by the unfavorable Association Agreement with the EU. Ukraine, together with Romania and Hungary, is the largest current debtor of the International Monetary Fund.

But since there is no subjunctive mood in history, it is impossible to estimate what consequences a situation without financing from the IMF would lead to in different countries. So the position of the fund's defenders is something like this - maybe it didn't work out very well somewhere, but without a loan it would be even worse. And the critics of the fund attack not the very idea of ​​providing a loan, but the conditions accompanying the loan - which, in fact, have an ambiguous effect on the economy and do not prevent corruption, but in many ways look like an increase in the political influence of the main lender. And although the inefficiency of the current lending system is clear to almost everyone, real changes in such a cumbersome and politically important structure cannot happen "at the snap of a finger." What is currently more from the IMF - benefit or harm - everyone decides for himself.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established in 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods in the United States. Its goals were originally declared as follows: promoting international cooperation in the field of finance, expanding and growing trade, ensuring the stability of currencies, assisting in settlements between member countries and providing them with funds in order to correct imbalances in the balance of payments. However, in practice, the Fund's activities are reduced to acquisitiveness for a minority (countries and which, among other organizations, controls the IMF. Have the IMF loans, or the IMF (International Monetary Fund) help, needy states? How does the Fund's work affect the global economy?

IMF: deciphering the concept, functions and tasks

IMF stands for International Monetary Fund, IMF (abbreviation decoding) in the Russian version looks like this: International Monetary Fund. This is designed to promote monetary cooperation on the basis of advising its members and allocating loans to them.

The objective of the Fund is to secure a solid parity of currencies. To this end, the Member States have established them in gold and US dollars, agreeing not to change them by more than ten percent without the consent of the Fund and not to deviate from this balance when carrying out transactions by more than one percent.

History of foundation and development of the Fund

In 1944, at the Bretton Woods conference in the United States, representatives of forty-four countries decided to create a common base for economic cooperation in order to avoid the devaluation that followed the Great Depression in the thirties, as well as to restore the financial system between states after the war. The following year, based on the results of the conference, the IMF was created.

The USSR also took an active part in the conference and signed the Act on the establishment of the organization, but subsequently did not ratify it and did not participate in the activities. But in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and other former Soviet republics joined the IMF.

In 1999, the IMF already included 182 countries.

Governing bodies, structure and participating countries

The headquarters of the UN specialized organization - the IMF - is located in Washington. The governing body of the International Monetary Fund is the Board of Governors. It includes the actual manager and deputy from each member country of the Fund.

The Executive Board consists of 24 directors representing groups of countries or individual participating countries. At the same time, the managing director is always a European, and his first deputy is an American.

The authorized capital is formed at the expense of contributions from states. Currently, the IMF includes 188 countries. Based on the size of the paid quotas, their votes are distributed among the countries.

IMF data show that the largest number of votes belongs to the United States (17.8%), Japan (6.13%), Germany (5.99%), Great Britain and France (4.95% each), Saudi Arabia (3 .22%), Italy (4.18%) and Russia (2.74%). Thus, the US, as having the most votes, is the only country that has the most important issues discussed in the IMF. And many European countries (and not only them) simply vote in the same way as the United States of America.

The role of the Fund in the global economy

The IMF constantly monitors the financial and monetary policies of member countries and the state of the economy around the world. To this end, consultations are held every year with government organizations regarding exchange rates. On the other hand, member states should consult with the Fund on macroeconomic matters.

The IMF provides loans to countries in need, offering countries that they can use for a variety of purposes.

In the first twenty years of its existence, the Fund gave loans mainly to developed countries, but then this activity was reoriented to developing countries. It is interesting that from about the same time, the neo-colonial system in the world began its formation.

Conditions for countries to receive a loan from the IMF

In order for the member states of the organization to receive a loan from the IMF, they must fulfill a number of political and economic conditions.

This trend was formed in the eighties of the twentieth century, and over time only continues to tighten.

The IMF Bank requires the implementation of programs that, in fact, lead not to the country's exit from the crisis, but to the curtailment of investments, the cessation of economic growth and the deterioration of citizens in general.

It is noteworthy that in 2007 there was a severe crisis of the IMF organization. The deciphering of the 2008 global economic downturn is said to have been its consequence. No one wanted to take loans from the organization, and those countries that had received them earlier sought to repay their debts ahead of schedule.

But there was a global crisis, everything fell into place, and even more. The IMF has tripled its resources as a result and has an even greater impact on the global economy.

Evgeny Borodin, consultant

General information

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established at the World Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods (USA, New Hampshire) in July 1944, at which its participants adopted the articles of the IMF agreement, which play the role of its charter. The Fund began its practical activities in May 1946 - it includes 39 countries. The USSR took part in the Bretton Woods conference, but due to the beginning of the Cold War, the articles of the IMF agreement were not ratified. For the same reason, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Cuba left the IMF in the 1950s and 1960s.

During the "perestroika", the "Big Seven" made a decision: the European Union coordinates the provision of assistance to the countries of Eastern Europe, and the IMF directly - the USSR (then - Russia and the CIS countries). On June 1, 1992, Russia signed the articles of the IMF agreement and officially became a member of this organization.

The IMF currently has 185 member countries., almost all UN member countries except Cuba, North Korea, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Nauru and Tuvalu.

The purpose of the IMF is to regulate the monetary and credit relations of member states and to assist them in the event of a balance of payments deficit by providing short- and medium-term loans in foreign currency.

The supreme governing body of the IMF is the Board of Governors, in which each member country is represented by a governor and his deputy. All governors meet once a year for the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

IMF policy is overseen by the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) 24 whose members are finance ministers or central bank governors of countries and groups of countries represented on the Executive Council.

The IMF's Executive Board is responsible for most decisions and consists of 24 Executive Directors. Russia is represented by Mozhin A.V. and Lushin A.. Eight countries with the largest quotas in the Fund appoint their directors - the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The remaining 176 Member States are organized into 16 groups, each of which elects one Executive Director.

The Executive Board elects a Managing Director for a five-year term (since September 2007 - Dominique Strauss-Kahn, France).

By agreement between the founding countries of the Fund, the managing director must be a representative of one of the European countries, and the director of the World Bank must be a US citizen.

The IMF has approximately 2,700 staff and is headquartered in Washington DC. The Foundation has offices in more than 80 countries around the world, including in Russia.

The IMF earns income from interest and fees on loans and uses income to cover financing costs, pay administrative expenses, and accumulate insurance balances. In fiscal year 2007, revenue was SDR111 million below expenses. The net income shortfall mainly reflects a significant reduction in outstanding IMF loans, from a peak of SDR 70 billion in September 2003 to SDR 7.3 billion at the end of fiscal year 2007, and due to weak demand for new IMF loans, as well as early repayment of loans by some member states in recent years.

Record-breaking borrowings from the IMF - $ 120 billion, fell on 1997-1999. The largest recipients of financial assistance during this period were the countries most affected by financial crises: South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia.

Conditions for membership in the IMF and lending facilities

When joining the IMF, each member country pays a subscription fee called a "quota". Countries pay 25% towards their quota in the form of reserve assets, the so-called. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, or the main currency (US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, pound sterling). If necessary, for lending purposes, the IMF may request from a member country the remainder to be paid in its own currency. The quotas are reviewed every 5 years. The total amount of contributions from member countries forms the authorized capital of the IMF, which is used to provide temporary assistance to countries experiencing financial difficulties.

The quota is calculated on the basis of data on the volume of the country's GDP, as well as on the basis of the available gold and foreign exchange reserves of states and determines the amount that it can borrow from the IMF and its voting right. The total amount of quotas in the IMF is equivalent to 217.4 billion SDRs. The United States has the largest quota of 37.149 billion SDRs or 371,743 (16.77%) votes, while Russia has 5.945 billion SDRs or 59,704 (2.69%) votes. However, the new Managing Director Strauss-Kahn, who was not supported by Russia during his appointment, proposes to reduce Russia's quota to 1.7-1.8% and transfer its influence to the level of the Persian Gulf countries, Thailand and Argentina. Together, the United States and the EU countries currently have 50% of the entire IMF voting quota and, in fact, can pass any decision regardless of the opinions of other countries combined, so reducing Russia's quota, by and large, has no practical significance.

Basic mechanisms and conditions for lending

When providing financial assistance, the Fund requires the borrowing country to fulfill certain conditions regarding its currency system, foreign trade, state budget balance, and the degree of their rigidity increases as you move from one tranche to another. The obligations of the borrowing country are recorded in a Letter of intent or Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies sent to the IMF. Progress in meeting commitments is monitored through periodic evaluation. If the IMF considers that a country is using a loan in contradiction with the goals of the Fund, does not fulfill its obligations, it can limit its lending, refuse to provide the next tranche. Thus, this mechanism allows the IMF to exert economic and often political pressure on the borrowing countries.

Relations between Russia and the IMF

In January 1992, the Russian government officially applied to the IMF for financial assistance in the amount of $6 billion to create a stabilization fund. The first agreement on assistance was signed by M. Camdessus and E. Gaidar in early July 1992. On August 5, the first tranche of $1 billion was provided, which was used to replenish foreign exchange reserves, make payments on external debt and intervene in the foreign exchange market. However, Russia did not receive subsequent tranches of the reserve loan in 1992. The funds ($6 billion) intended for the ruble stabilization fund were not allocated either. The IMF explained the refusal by the fact that the Russian government evaded the implementation of the stabilization program agreed with it, the volume of GDP decreased by 14.5%, the federal budget deficit, instead of the planned level of 5% of GDP, reached (according to the IMF methodology) 22.4%, and inflation averaged 20.5% per month.

In June 1993, the IMF offered Russia a second $3 billion loan. within the framework of the newly created direction - "Assistance to system transformations" (System Transformation Facility - STF). Unlike other STF loans, the terms were less stringent and required the borrowing country not to impose trade restrictions. However, on September 19, 1993, the IMF suspended the transfer of money to the Russian Federation due to the fact that the Government was unable to contain inflation and cut budget spending. In 1994, negotiations were held with an IMF delegation, as a result, Russia received a second tranche of a $1.5 billion loan to support systemic reforms. After the currency shocks of the fall of 1994, culminating in Black Tuesday (October 11, 1994), The government has taken a course on suppressing inflation as the main macroeconomicgoals, which prompted support from the IMF. This resulted in the provision in April 1995 of a standby stabilization loan of $6.8 billion. The package of agreements with the IMF consisted not only of the requirement to reduce inflation to 2% per month, but also the state budget deficit to 8% of GDP. Monitoring was to be carried out every month (before that it was carried out quarterly) by a special working group consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and IMF experts.

From the point of view of Russia's external economic indicators, 1997 was the most successful year. In 1998, the economic situation in Russia deteriorated sharply in connection with the fall in world energy prices. As a result, in the first half of 1998 the balance of payments on the current account turned from active to passive with a deficit of $5.1 billion. financial assistance. The agreement with the IMF provided for a loan in four tranches, but the first loan provided could no longer save the situation, and on August 17, 1998, a default was declared in the country.

After the default, Russia did not receive financial assistance from the IMF. In 2005, the Government repaid its debt to the IMF ahead of schedule, paying $3.3 billion.

Russian IMF loans and their conditions

In recent years, IMF policy and recommendations in relation to developing countries have often been criticized, the essence of which is that the implementation of recommendations and conditions is ultimately not aimed at increasing the independence and development of the national economy, but only tying it to international financial flows.

Milton Friedman, an American economist and Nobel Prize winner in economics, believes that the IMF's policy has become a destabilizing factor in the markets of developing countries. And not because of the conditions that he imposed on his clients, but primarily because he is trying to protect private investors from their own mistakes. Mexico's bailout during the 1995 crisis spurred a crisis in other emerging markets. "It would not be an exaggeration to say, - emphasizes M. Friedman, - if the IMF did not exist, then there would be no East Asian crisis." This shows that international structures such as the IMF are not able to effectively solve the tasks assigned to them. Some economists even began to call for the termination of the IMF in the form in which it exists now.

Today, practically no one takes IMF-related financial loans, and therefore new IMF liabilities have sharply decreased: from SDR 8.3 billion in fiscal year 2006 to SDR 237 million in 2007, and those who previously received financial assistance from the IMF are trying to repay ahead of schedule debts. In fiscal year 2007, nine member countries: Bulgaria, Haiti, Indonesia, Malawi, Serbia, Uruguay, Philippines, Central African Republic, Ecuador settled their current IMF obligations ahead of schedule totaling SDR 7.1 billion.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an intergovernmental monetary and credit organization with the status of a UN specialized agency. The objective of the fund is to promote international monetary cooperation and trade, coordinate the monetary and financial policies of the member countries, provide them with loans to regulate the balance of payments and maintain exchange rates.

The decision to create the IMF was taken by 44 states at a conference on monetary and financial issues held in Bretton Woods (USA) from July 1 to July 22, 1944. On December 27, 1945, 29 states signed the fund's charter. The authorized capital amounted to 7.6 billion dollars. The first financial operations of the IMF began on March 1, 1947.

184 states are members of the IMF.

The IMF has the authority to create and make available to its members international financial reserves in the form of "special drawing rights" (SDRs). SDR - a system for providing mutual loans in conditional monetary units - SDRs, equated in terms of gold content to the US dollar.

The Fund's financial resources come primarily from subscriptions ("quotas") from IMF member countries, which currently total about $293 billion. Quotas are determined on the basis of the relative size of the member states' economies.

The main financial role of the IMF is to provide short-term loans. Unlike the World Bank, which provides loans to poor countries, the IMF lends only to its member countries. The Fund's loans are provided through the usual channels to member countries in the form of tranches, or shares, equal to 25% of the quota of the respective member state.

Russia signed an agreement on joining the IMF as an associate member on October 5, 1991, and on June 1, 1992 officially became the 165th member of the IMF by signing the Fund's Charter.

On January 31, 2005, Russia fully repaid its debt to the International Monetary Fund by making a payment of 2.19 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), equivalent to $3.33 billion. Thus, Russia saved $204 million, which it had to pay in case of repayment of the debt to the IMF according to the schedule until 2008.

The supreme governing body of the IMF is the Board of Governors, in which all member countries are represented. The Council holds its meetings annually.

The day-to-day operations are managed by an Executive Board of 24 Executive Directors. The five largest shareholders of the IMF (US, UK, Germany, France and Japan), as well as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia, have their own seats on the Board. The remaining 16 Executive Directors are elected for two-year terms by country groups.

The Executive Board elects a Managing Director. The Managing Director is the Chairman of the Board and the head of staff of the IMF. He is appointed for a five-year term with the possibility of re-election.

According to the agreement existing between the US and the EU countries, the IMF is traditionally headed by Western European economists, while the US chairs the World Bank. Since 2007, the procedure for nominating candidates has been changed - any of the 24 members of the Board of Directors has the opportunity to nominate a candidate for the post of Managing Director, and he can be from any member country of the fund.

The first Managing Director of the IMF was Camille Gutt, a Belgian economist and politician, former Minister of Finance, who headed the Fund from May 1946 to May 1951.