International Monetary Fund Annual Report 2014

This companion volume to the International Monetary Fund’s Annual Report 2014—From Stabilization to Sustainable Growth contains the audited financial statements that form Appendix VI to the report. The financial statements can also be found, together with Appendixes I through V and other materials, on the Annual Report 2014 web page (www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/ar/2014/eng).

This companion volume to the International Monetary Fund’s Annual Report 2014—From Stabilization to Sustainable Growth contains the audited financial statements that form Appendix VI to the report. The financial statements can also be found, together with Appendixes I through V and other materials, on the Annual Report 2014 web page (www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/ar/2014/eng).

Seven years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the world still has a way to go to secure a sustainable recovery marked by strong growth that supports rapid job creation and benefits all, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde says in her foreword to the institution’s Annual Report 2014—From Stabilization to Sustainable Growth, published today. “The recovery is ongoing, but it is still too slow and fragile, subject to the vagaries of financial sentiment. Millions of people are still looking for work. The level of uncertainty might be diminishing, but it is certainly not disappearing.” Ms. Lagarde said that “throughout the crisis and in the recovery period, the IMF has been, and continues to be, an indispensible agent of economic cooperation” for its membership. The report covers the work of the IMF’s Executive Board and contains financial statements for the year May 1, 2013, to April 30, 2014. It describes the IMF’s support for its 188 member countries, with an emphasis on the core areas of IMF responsibility: assessing their economic and financial policies, providing financing where needed, and building capacity in key areas of economic policy.

This is the 65th issue of the AREAER. It provides a description of the foreign exchange arrangements, exchange and trade systems, and capital controls of all IMF member countries. It also provides information on the operation of foreign exchange markets and controls on international trade. It describes controls on capital transactions and measures implemented in the financial sector, including prudential measures. In addition, it reports on exchange measures imposed by member countries for security reasons. A single table provides a snapshot of the exchange and trade systems of all IMF member countries. The Overview describes in detail how the general trend toward foreign exchange liberalization continued during 2013, alongside a strengthening of the financial sector regulatory framework. A Special Topic essay examines the dynamics and evolution of capital flows. The AREAER is available in several formats. The Overview in print and online, and the detailed information for each of the 191 member countries and territories is included on a CD that accompanies the printed Overview and in an online database, AREAER Online. In addition to the information on the exchange and trade system of IMF member countries in 2013, AREAER Online contains historical data published in previous issues of the AREAER. It is searchable by year, country, and category of measure and allows cross country comparisons for time series.

The 2014 Annual Report of the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics (Committee) provides an overview of recent trends and discrepancies in global balance of payments statistics, and summarizes the Committee’s work program during 2014 and the issues the Committee plans to address in the coming year.

The 2014 Annual Report of the Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund.

The Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014)—describes a specialized macroeconomic statistical framework––the government finance statistics (GFS) framework––designed to support fiscal analysis. The manual provides the economic and statistical reporting principles to be used in compiling the statistics; describes guidelines for presenting fiscal statistics within an analytic framework that includes appropriate balancing items; and is harmonized with other macroeconomic statistical guidelines.