1993 Annual Report Of The Executive Board

The dramatic events since the late 1980s, which witnessed the end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the fragmentation of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a united Germany, have set in motion a recasting of the European security order.

The Annual Report to the Board of Governors reviews the IMF's activities and policies during any given year. There are five chapters: (1) Overview, (2) Developments in the Global Economy and Financial Markets, (3) Policies to Secure Sustained and Balanced Global Growth, (4) Reforming and Strengthening the IMF to Better Support Member Countries, and (5) Finances, Organization, and Accountability. the full financial statements for the year are published separately and are also available, along with appendixes and other supplementary materials.

Most people today are poor, and unemployment continues to run rampant. Can capitalism truly lift us up? Author John Bosco Nkumunue, an economist, believes it canas long as the world gets behind a new form and concept of capitalism. Nkumunue is on a mission to fight poverty, redistribute wealth, and create better living conditions for vast numbers of people. In this study, he outlines how this new form of capitalism would affect the rich, the middle-class, and the poor. He explores critical issues, such as the key role that demand plays in the economy; the unforeseen ways in which liquidity affects us; ways in which businesses can bolster markets through investment; and ways for consumers can wield power in the marketplace. A progressive form of capitalism could alleviate the worlds suffering and narrow the wealth gap by stimulating investment and therefore job growth. It has the potential to change the economic classes of the world, decrease poverty, and end the global economic crisis.

This volume looks at the effectiveness of conditionality in structural adjustment programmes. Tony Killick charts the emergence of conditionality, and challenges the widely held assumption that it is a co-operative process, arguing that in fact it tends to be coercive and detrimental to development objectives. Through detailed case studies of twenty one recipient countries, he explores the key issues of: * ownership * role of agencies * government objectives and the effects of policy. The conclusion is that conditionality has been counterproductive to price stability, economic growth and investment.

One result of the IMF's move to increased openness are independent external evaluations of important IMF policies, to complement its own in-house evaluations. This paper, prepared by a team of evaluators, includes in addition to the external evaluation, a statement by Bernd Esdar, Chairman of the Executive Director's group concerned with external evaluations; the summing up by IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus of the Executive Board's discussion of the report; the terms of reference; and the IMF staff's response to the evaluation.