The International Monetary Fund
The IMF is the world’s central organization for international monetary cooperation. With 188 member countries, it is an organization in which almost all of the countries in the world work together to promote the common good. The IMF’s primary purpose is to safeguard the stability of the international monetary system—the system of exchange rates and international payments that enables countries (and their citizens) to buy goods and services from one another. This is essential for achieving sustainable economic growth and raising living standards.
All of the IMF’s member countries are represented on its Executive Board, which discusses the national, regional, and global consequences of each member’s economic policies. This Annual Report covers the activities of the Executive Board and IMF management and staff during the financial year May 1, 2011, through April 30, 2012.
The main activities of the IMF include
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providing advice to members on adopting policies that can help them prevent or resolve a financial crisis, achieve macroeconomic stability, accelerate economic growth, and alleviate poverty;
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making financing temporarily available to member countries to help them address balance of payments problems, that is, when they find themselves short of foreign exchange because their payments to other countries exceed their foreign exchange earnings; and
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offering technical assistance and training to countries, at their request, to help them build the expertise and institutions they need to implement sound economic policies.
The IMF is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and, reflecting its global reach and close ties with its members, also has offices around the world.
Additional information on the IMF and its member countries can be found on the Fund’s website, www.imf.org.
Ancillary materials for the Annual Report—Web Boxes, Web Tables, Appendixes (Including the IMF’s financial statements for the financial year ended April 30, 2012), and other pertinent documents—can be accessed via the Annual Report web page at www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/ar/2012/eng. Print copies of the financial statements are available from IMF Publication Services, P.O. Box 92780, Washington, DC 20090. A CD-ROM version of the Annual Report, including the ancillary materials posted on the web page, is also available from IMF Publication Services.Acronyms and Abbreviations
| AML |
anti-money laundering |
| AML/CFT |
anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism |
| BIS |
Bank for International Settlements |
| COFER |
Currency Composition of Foreign Exchange Reserves |
| CSO |
civil society organization |
| EAC |
External Audit Committee |
| EFF |
Extended Fund Facility |
| EUO |
Offices in Europe |
| FATF |
Financial Action Task Force |
| FCL |
Flexible Credit Line |
| FM |
Fiscal Monitor |
| FSB |
Financial Stability Board |
| FY |
financial year |
| G-20 |
Group of Twenty |
| GDDS |
General Data Dissemination System |
| GDP |
gross domestic product |
| GFSR |
Global Financial Stability Report |
| GRA |
General Resources Account |
| HIPC |
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries |
| HQ1 |
main headquarters |
| IEO |
Independent Evaluation Office |
| ILO |
International Labour Organization |
| IMF |
International Monetary Fund |
| IMFC |
International Monetary and Financial Committee |
| IT |
information technology |
| MAP |
Mutual Assessment Process |
| MDRI |
Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative |
| NAB |
New Arrangements to Borrow |
| OAP |
Office for Asia and the Pacific |
| OIA |
Office of Internal Audit and Inspection |
| PCL |
Precautionary Credit Line |
| PIN |
Public Information Notice |
| PLL |
Precautionary and Liquidity Line |
| PR |
press release |
| PRGT |
Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust |
| PSI |
Policy Support Instrument |
| REO |
Regional Economic Outlook |
| RTAC |
regional technical assistance center |
| SBA |
Stand-By Arrangement |
| SDDS |
Special Data Dissemination Standard |
| SDMX |
Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange |
| TA |
technical assistance |
| TSR |
Triennial Surveillance Review |
| TTF |
topical trust fund |
| WEO |
World Economic Outlook |
IMF INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
ANNUAL REPORT 2012
WORKING TOGETHER TO SUPPORT GLOBAL RECOVERY
Contents
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MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHAIR OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL TO THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS
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1 | OVERVIEW
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A Fragile and Tepid Recovery
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Policies to Put the Crisis Behind Us
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Financing for Members
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Modernizing the Financing Toolkit
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Strengthening Surveillance
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Technical Assistance and Training
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Reforming the Fund to Meet the Changing Profile of Member Countries
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Collaboration and Outreach
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2 | GLOBAL ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
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Getting Two Steps Ahead
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3 | SUPPORTING GLOBAL RECOVERY
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Financial Support to Countries during the Crisis
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Global safety net
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Stronger Surveillance to Support a Return to Sustainable Global Growth
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Strengthening surveillance
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Capital flows
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Risk assessment and management
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Role of the SDR
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4 | BUILDING CAPACITY FOR SUSTAINED GROWTH
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Support for Low-Income Countries
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Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiatives
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Review of the Joint IMF–World Bank Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries
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Building Capacity in Member Countries
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Technical assistance
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Training
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Data and Data Standards Initiatives
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The IMF’s standards for data dissemination
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Eighth Review of the Fund’s Data Standards Initiatives
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Other data-related activities
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Collaboration with Group of Twenty and other organizations
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IMF collaboration with the G-20
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Participation in regional financing arrangements
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Collaboration with other organizations
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5 | GOVERNANCE, FINANCES, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
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Quota and Governance Reform
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Progress on the 2010 quota and governance reform
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Review of the quota formula
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Resources, Income, and Budget
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Borrowing agreements
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Income, charges, remuneration, and burden sharing
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Administrative and capital budgets
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Arrears to the IMF
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Audit mechanisms
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Risk management
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Membership
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Human Resources Policies and Organization
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Human resources in FY2012
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Management changes
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Accountability
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Transparency
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Independent Evaluation Office
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Ethics framework for staff, management, and the Executive Board
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Engagement with external stakeholders
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS AND ALTERNATES
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SENIOR OFFICERS
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IMF ORGANIZATION CHART
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NOTES
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BOXES
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3.1. Fund engagement in the euro area
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3.2. Support to Arab transition countries
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3.3. Key elements of the new instruments
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3.4. Using anti–money laundering measures in Fund-supported programs: Afghanistan and Greece
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4.1. Japan’s contribution to IMF technical assistance
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4.2. Evaluating the effectiveness of IMF Institute training
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4.3. Mobile applications for IMF statistical data
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4.4. Public Sector Debt Statistics: Guide for Compilers and Users
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5.1. Building renovations
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5.2. Farewell to John Lipsky
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5.3. The Independent Evaluation Office’s tenth anniversary conference
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5.4. IMF launches Arabic blog
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5.5. Conference on public health care reform in Asia
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FIGURES
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3.1. Arrangements approved during financial years ended April 30, 2003–12
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3.2. Nonconcessional financing outstanding, FY2003–12
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3.3. Concessional financing outstanding, FY2003–12
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4.1. Technical assistance delivery in FY2007–12 by income group
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4.2. Technical assistance delivery in FY2007–12 by country status
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4.3. Technical assistance delivery during FY2012 by subject and region
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4.4. Technical assistance delivery in FY2007–12 by subject and topic
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4.5. Technical assistance delivery in FY2008–12 by financing source
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TABLES
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3.1. IMF financing facilities
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3.2. Arrangements under main facilities approved in FY2012
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3.3. Arrangements approved and augmented under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust in FY2012
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4.1. IMF Institute training program, FY2008–12
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5.1. Budget by major expenditure category, FY2011–15
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5.2. Administrative expenses reported in the financial statements
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5.3. Arrears to the IMF of countries with obligations overdue by six months or more and by type
The IMF’s financial year is May 1 through April 30. The unit of account of the IMF is the SDR; conversions of IMF financial data to U.S. dollars are approximate and provided for convenience. On April 30, 2012, the SDR/U.S. dollar exchange rate was US$1 = SDR 0.644934, and the U.S. dollar/SDR exchange rate was SDR 1 = US$1.55055. The year-earlier rates (April 30, 2011) were US$1 = SDR 0.616919 and SDR 1 = US$1.62096.
“Billion” means a thousand million; “trillion” means a thousand billion; minor discrepancies between constituent figures and totals are due to rounding.
As used in this Annual Report, the term “country” does not in all cases refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice. As used here, the term also covers some territorial entities that are not states but for which statistical data are maintained on a separate and independent basis.
Message from The Managing Director and Chair of The Executive Board
The past year was a deeply challenging one for many IMF members and for the Fund itself. The global financial crisis continued to flare up across the world, especially in the euro area. We saw many false hopes and too many cases of two steps forward and one step back. The result is a continued lack of confidence, continued financial market stress, and a continued weak recovery. Meanwhile, unemployment remains unacceptably high in too many regions and the social fabric is becoming increasingly stretched.
Clearly, it is more important than ever to restore global economic and financial stability and put the global economy on a course of sustained growth.
Especially in these circumstances, the IMF must continue to apply all of its analytical excellence and forward-thinking creativity to help its members overcome current problems and build a bridge to that better world.
In this respect, I am proud of the strong, independent role played by the IMF over the past financial year. We tried to be as objective and evenhanded as possible in assessing economic plans and giving advice to countries. Consider the following examples.
We called for an aggressive strategy to recapitalize European banks, to build a larger firewall to reduce contagion and restore confidence, and to use these funds to take direct stakes in banks. The Fund also called for a comprehensive plan for greater European financial and fiscal integration. We tried to bring balance to the fiscal debate, noting that an overly zealous approach to cutting budget deficits could make global economic conditions worse. And we continued to work toward better financial sector regulation and supervision, to ensure we do not return to the financial system that produced the crisis.
The Fund continued to innovate over the period and has worked hard to improve the way we do business. Following the findings of the Triennial Surveillance Review, we took steps to improve the Fund’s surveillance methods and outputs, and to focus more on the risks and interconnections that pervade the modern global economy. We set out to develop a work plan for financial sector surveillance, and in the area of external stability, the Executive Board continued work to broaden systematic multilateral analysis beyond exchange rates to include external balances. The Executive Board also worked to update the existing legal framework to enable more effective conduct of surveillance.
In our surveillance, we paid greater attention to employment, inclusive growth, and social issues, and we looked carefully at the issues facing the low-income countries, including from commodity price fluctuations. The Fund also focused its work on several broader core macro areas, including managing capital flows and modernizing the fiscal framework and debt sustainability analysis.
On the lending front, we responded flexibly to our members’ financing needs, all across the world. We intensified dialogue with the Arab transition countries, laying the groundwork for possible financing support, and we maintained our support for our low-income members. Recognizing that prevention is better than cure, the Executive Board agreed to reforms to the Fund’s lending toolkit that are designed to provide better liquidity and emergency assistance to our global membership. The new more flexible Precautionary and Liquidity Line, which replaced the Precautionary Credit Line, can be used in broader circumstances, including as insurance against future shocks and as a short-term liquidity window, to address the needs of members with sound economic fundamentals and policy frameworks. At the same time, our new Rapid Financing Instrument allows us to support a full range of urgent balance of payments needs, including those arising from exogenous shocks.
Over the past financial year, we also stepped up our technical assistance program. Aided by generous donor contributions, the Fund delivered significantly more technical assistance than in previous years. In addition, after a strategic review, we merged two operational units to create a new department to oversee and manage training and technical assistance delivery—the Institute for Capacity Development.
All in all, I believe the IMF had a productive year. Our members expressed their confidence in us by boosting our resources by US$456 billion (US$430 billion at the end of the 2012 financial year). The Executive Board also endorsed the use of a portion of the windfall profits from IMF gold sales to help raise additional funds to subsidize the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust’s concessional financing. It remains imperative to ensure adequate resources for concessional lending, so this is a welcome contribution toward subsidizing the interest rate on concessional financing arrangements with low-income members.
Looking ahead, it is important to move forward with the governance reforms agreed in 2010. The IMF must be representative of its entire membership and be seen as truly legitimate. And on this basis, the IMF will continue working with its members to find collective solutions to collective problems and chart the course to a more prosperous future.
I am deeply honored to be the Managing Director of the IMF. I am impressed by our staff, and proud of our work. I have the greatest respect for the professionalism and integrity of the IMF’s Executive Board, and its tireless efforts to carry out the mandate of the IMF, day in and day out.
The Annual Report of the IMF’s Executive Board to the Fund’s Board of Governors is an essential instrument in the IMF’s accountability. The Executive Board is responsible for conducting the Fund’s business and consists of 24 Executive Directors appointed by the IMF’s 188 member countries, while the Board of Governors, on which every member country is represented by a senior official, is the highest authority governing the IMF. The publication of the Annual Report represents the accountability of the Executive Board to the Fund’s Board of Governors.
Executive Board
Alternate Executive Directors are indicated in italics.
Meg Lundsager
Vacant
United States
Mitsuhiro Furusawa
Tomoyuki Shimoda
Japan
Hubert Temmeyer
Steffen Meyer
Germany
Ambroise Fayolle
Alice Terracol
France
Arrigo Sadun
Thanos Catsambas
Albania, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, San Marino, Timor-Leste
Der Jiun Chia
Aida Budiman
Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Lao P.D.R., Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, Vietnam
Tao Zhang
Ping Sun
China
Christopher Legg
Hoseung Lee
Australia, Kiribati, Korea, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu
Arvind Virmani
P. Nandalal Weerasinghe
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka
Paulo Nogueira Batista, Jr.
María Angélica Arbeláez
Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago
Ahmed Alkholifey
Fahad I. Alshathri
Saudi Arabia
René Weber
Vacant
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
Alexander Gibbs
Robert Elder
United Kingdom
Willy Kiekens
Johann Prader
Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Turkey
Carlos Pérez-Verdía
José Rojas Ramirez
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain, Venezuela
Menno Snel
Yuriy G. Yakusha
Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Romania, Ukraine
Thomas Hockin
Mary O’Dea
Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Ireland, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Benny Andersen
Audun Grønn
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden
Moeketsi Majoro
Momodou Saho
Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
A. Shakour Shaalan
Sami Geadah
Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
Aleksei V. Mozhin
Andrei Lushin
Russian Federation
Jafar Mojarrad
Mohammed Daïri
Afghanistan, Algeria, Ghana, Islamic Republic of Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia
Alfredo Mac Laughlin
Pablo Garcia-Silva
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay
Kossi Assimaidou
Nguéto Tiraina Yambaye
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Togo
Letter of Transmittal to the Board of Governors
July 26, 2012
Dear Mr. Chairman:
I have the honor to present to the Board of Governors the Annual Report of the Executive Board for the financial year ended April 30, 2012, in accordance with Article XII, Section 7(a) of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund and Section 10 of the IMF’s By-Laws. In accordance with Section 20 of the By-Laws, the administrative and capital budgets of the IMF approved by the Executive Board for the financial year ending April 30, 2013, are presented in Chapter 5. The audited financial statements for the year ended April 30, 2012, of the General Department, the SDR Department, and the accounts administered by the IMF, together with reports of the external audit firm thereon, are presented in Appendix VI, which appears on the CD-ROM version of the Report, as well as at www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/ar/2012/eng/index.htm. The external audit and financial reporting processes were overseen by the External Audit Committee, comprising Ms. Amelia Cabal (Chair), Mr. Arfan Ayass, and Mr. Jian-Xi Wang, as required under Section 20(c) of the Fund’s By-Laws.
Christine Lagarde
Managing Director and Chair of the Executive Board