задания по английскому языку (магистратура) / World Bank IMF
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World Bank and International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank originated during World War II in preparation for postwar international financial and economic cooperation. Initiated by the United States and Great Britain, these efforts culminated in the UN Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods, N.H., U.S. Forty-four nations attended the conference, although the resulting system of international postwar reconstruction and monetary relations, known as the Bretton Woods system, was based on liberal principles articulated largely by the United States.
The principal functions of the World Bank are to assist in the reconstruction and development of its member countries by facilitating capital investment for productive purposes, to promote private foreign investment by guarantees of and participation in loans and other investments made by private investors, and to make loans for productive purposes out of its own resources or funds borrowed by it when private capital is not available on reasonable terms. The IMF was designed to stabilize international monetary rates and promote foreign exchange cooperation, though its function of extending loans for structural adjustments has increased dramatically. Both agencies have been focal points of contention between the Western industrialized and Third World countries, the former insisting on adherence to market principles and the latter asserting that such adherence causes undue hardships for developing states. The primary focus of these agencies has shifted from the advanced industrialized countries to Third World states owing to successful postwar reconstruction in the West, decolonization, and difficulties in development in the Third World that were exacerbated by the oil shocks of the 1970s. Both agencies are powerful players on the international economic scene.
The World Bank encompasses three separate institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which is its most important component; the International Development Association (IDA); and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Twenty-nine nations signed its articles of agreement in 1945. By the early 1990s the bank had more than 160 members. The bank is governed by an executive board and a managing director. Voting in the bank is weighted according to initial contributions to the bank's capital.
The World Bank may lend funds directly, guarantee loans made by others, or participate in such loans. Loans may be made to member countries directly or to any of their political subdivisions or to private business or agricultural enterprises in the territories of members.
The World Bank obtains its funds for loans primarily from borrowings in the capital markets. Its soft-loan component, the IDA (established in 1960), lends to low-income countries on more favourable terms, free of interest except for a small service charge. The IFC (established in 1956) provides loans to private business in developing countries.
Most of the World Bank's loans in its early years underwrote large-scale infrastructure projects – roads, railways, ports, power facilities, and telecommunications. Since about 1970 an increasing proportion of World Bank lending has been for agricultural, educational, and population programs in the Third World. Many programs have met with little or mixed success in their goal of pulling developing states out of poverty and increasing self-sufficiency, and so have engendered controversy. Furthermore, the bank's lending was further complicated in the 1980s by the world debt crisis and the fact that many debt-plagued states fell behind in loan repayments. The World Bank has, more recently, committed itself to sector assistance for farmers and business entrepreneurs as well as to projects that meet the environmental criteria outlined by the UN Environment Programme.
The IMF came into existence in December 1945, but its first transactions were not made until 1947. It is administered by a board of governors and 22 executive directors. Member governments subscribe the IMF's operating funds. Each member has a quota based on a formula that includes its GNP, reserves, and trade potential and pays its quota in its own currency or with a mix of its currency and acceptable reserve assets, including "special drawing rights" (or SDRs), which allow a country to purchase currency for other transactions. A member's quota determines both its voting power in the agency and access to funds. Members may arrange standby credits to use as and if necessary. The IMF has created a number of "facilities" under which it provides loans to countries facing particular difficulties.
The expansion of world trade, coupled with a succession of international financial crises, created a demand for additional reserves that could be used in the settlement of international balances. In 1971, as a result of these crises, the U.S. dollar went off the gold standard, marking the formal end of the Bretton Woods monetary system. By March 1973, a system of generalized floating had taken its place and is still used today. As a result, the IMF no longer intervened to stabilize monetary relations in currency crises; rather, its attention since the 1970s has been focused on the world debt crisis.
The IMF's lending has been intended to be for short-term purposes. In practice, this has worked more effectively for advanced countries, which formed the bulk of IMF recipients until the late 1960s, than for developing countries, which applied for funds in increasing numbers after the oil crisis of 1973. Many developing countries have become dependent on IMF loans, given uncertain export markets, the high cost of imports, and preexisting heavy debt burdens to both the IMF and private banks. Moreover, IMF conditionality, whereby the agency insists on certain measures of structural adjustment before approving loans, has generated controversy between the advanced industrial states, which wield the greatest voting power in the agency, and Third World states, which apply for loans. IMF conditionalities may include provisions for lifting foreign-exchange restrictions and price controls, liberalizing trade, and cutting spending to balance budgets. In imposing conditionalities, the IMF wields considerable influence on the domestic economic policies of the states that apply for assistance. Despite the relatively strict conditions often attached to loans, membership in the IMF has increased over the years, and loans were extended to Russia and a number of eastern European states after the end of the Cold War.
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