Summary Proceedings Of The Twentieth Annual Meeting Of The Board Of Governors 1965

The speeches made by officials attending the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings are published in this volume, along with the press communiqués issued by the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Development Committee at the conclusion of the meetings.

Written by Margaret Garritsen de Vries, former Historian of the IMF, the book describes the policies and activities the IMF has pursued in helping members achieve balane of payments adjustment. Separate treatment is given to industrial and developing countries, since their balance of payments problems have differed. As examples, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Colombia, and Mexico as discussed.

This book describes the history of the IMF from its birth, through the Bretton Woods era, and in the aftermath. Special attention is paid to integrating IMF history with the macro-economic policies of member countries and of other international institutions as well. This collection of work presents a clear understanding, inter alia, of the influence of the United States over IMF policy via the National Advisory Committee; the dealings of the IMF with the UK on pound sterling policy; the institutional change of the IMF brought about by Per Jacobsson, the third managing director; and France, Italy, Germany, Canada, and Japan vis-à-vis IMF consultations. It also provides the reader with topics concerning the bankers’ acceptance market function and international liquidity issues in relation to IMF policy; the final chapter sheds light on the long-standing relations between the IMF and China, from the Bretton Woods Agreement to the contemporary period. All the chapters are archive-based academic studies providing deep insights with historical background, which makes this book the first thoroughly independent achievement in the field of IMF history. This book is highly recommended to readers interested in contemporary monetary and financial history and those who seek to obtain a coherent image of postwar international institutions and markets.

IMF economists work closely with member countries on a variety of issues. Their unique perspective on country experiences and best practices on global macroeconomic issues are often shared in the form of books on diverse topics such as cross-country comparisons, capacity building, macroeconomic policy, financial integration, and globalization.

This paper discusses the history of the first 20 years of the IMF. It attempts to recount objectively what were its origins and what have been its plans and activities. The paper contains a chronological account of the evolution of the IMF from the original plans formulated in 1941 to the end of 1965, with a supplementary chapter summarizing subsequent events. It analyzes the IMF’s policies in three major fields and reviews its constitutional development.