Policy Papers
2011
April 8, 2011
Provisional Agenda for the Twenty-Third Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee
Description: A joint meeting of IMFC and G-20 Members will be held on Friday, April 15 on The Governance of Multilateral Surveillance from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. in HQ1 Meeting Halls A & B.
April 7, 2011
Review of the Fund's Income Position for FY 2011 and FY 2012
Description: This paper reviews the Fund’s income position for FY 2011 and FY 2012. The paper updates projections provided at the FY 2011 midyear review and sets out related proposed decisions for the current and next financial years. A companion paper provides an update on the consolidated medium-term income and expenditure framework.
April 1, 2011
Update on the Financing of the Fund’s Concessional Assistance and Debt Relief to Low-Income Member Countries
Description: Significant progress has been made towards meeting the fund-raising targets for the PRGT, but additional resources will be needed to complete the 2009 LIC financing package. So far, fourteen members have pledged about SDR 9.8 billion in new loan resources, compared to the target of SDR 10.8 billion (including provision for a liquidity buffer to facilitate encashment). New borrowing agreements totaling SDR 7.7 billion have been signed with ten lenders. Six of these agreements provide loan resources in SDRs, and five creditors also participated in the voluntary encashment regime.
March 31, 2011
Statement by the Managing Director on Updating the Strategic Directions in the Medium-Term Budget - Executive Board Meeting - April 20, 2011
Description: In early 2008, the Fund launched ambitious reforms to enhance its ability to deliver the economic and financial analysis, member support, and multilateral collaboration essential to promote global stability. The reform agenda called for: (i) stronger surveillance through sharpened multilateral and regional tools, analysis of macro-financial and international linkages, and greater use of cross-country work in bilateral surveillance; (ii) sharper policy advice for low-income countries, with emphasis on areas of core Fund expertise; (iii) improved capacity building efforts to be augmented by more external fund-raising; and (iv) a modernized governance structure to enhance the Fund’s legitimacy and better reflect its role as a universal institution capable of facilitating global cooperation and action. With the onset of the global financial crisis later in 2008, the Fund also committed to reforming its lending toolkit, including overhauling its concessional support instruments, to ensure that its facilities fully met members’ evolving needs.
March 30, 2011
FY2012-FY2014 Medium-Term Budget
Description: With the global financial landscape still unsettled, temporary spending looks set to remain at current levels over the next few years. Lending commitments and crisis-management activities have surged since the onset of the crisis: by the end of December 2010, there were 60 program and financial arrangements in place, compared with 40 at the time of the Fund’s restructuring in early 2008. The higher lending has generated a sharp but temporary rise in income, but has also required an increase in temporary spending. This expenditure will unwind over time, but only marginally over the FY 12–14 MTB period.
March 24, 2011
Framework Administered Account for Selected Fund Activities - Denmark Subaccount for Selected Fund Activities
Description: In March 2009, the Fund established a new Framework Administered Account to administer external financial resources for selected Fund Activities (the “SFA Instrument”). The financing of activities under the terms of the SFA Instrument is implemented through the establishment and operation of subaccounts within the SFA. This paper requests Executive Board approval to establish the Denmark Subaccount for Selected Fund Activities (the “Subaccount”) under the terms of the SFA Instrument.
March 23, 2011
Strengthening the International Monetary System - Taking Stock and Looking Ahead
Description:
The current IMS has survived for over forty years, underpinning strong growth in GDP and in the international exchange of goods and capital, one of its core objectives. As a result, interdependence among the world’s economies has grown dramatically, making the existence of a sound system ever more important.
At the same time, the system has exhibited many symptoms of instability—frequent crises, persistent current account imbalances and exchange rate misalignments, volatile capital flows and currencies, and unprecedentedly large reserve accumulation.
These symptoms have come to a head since the 2008 crisis and brought renewed international momentum to the idea of attempting to reform the IMS. Yet the debate so far suggests little consensus on the underlying problems, let alone on the solutions.
This paper identifies four root causes to these problems: inadequate global adjustment mechanisms to prevent inconsistent or imprudent policies among systemic countries; lack a comprehensive oversight framework for growing cross-border capital flows, covering both source and recipient countries; inadequate systemic liquidity provision mechanisms; and structural challenges in the supply of safe assets.
March 21, 2011
Framework Administered Account for Selected Fund Activities: World Bank Subaccount for Selected Fund Activities
Description: In March 2009, the Fund established a new Framework Administered Account to administer external financial resources for selected Fund Activities (the “SFA Instrument”). The financing of activities under the terms of the SFA Instrument is implemented through the establishment and operation of a subaccount within the SFA. This paper requests Executive Board approval to establish the World Bank Subaccount for Selected Fund Activities (the “Subaccount”) under the terms of the SFA instrument.
March 18, 2011
Financial Transactions Plan - Temporary Modification of Guidelines for Allocation of Currencies Used for Transfers
Description: This paper proposes a temporary modification of the current guidelines for allocation of currencies used for transfers in the Financial Transactions Plan (FTP). This temporary modification is designed to promote fair burden sharing between NAB participants that have bilateral borrowing agreements or note purchase agreements (hereafter referred to as “bilateral agreements”) and participants that do not have such agreements, and would result in a change from the current approach only for those FTP members that are NAB participants. It is proposed that the current guidelines for allocation of currencies used for transfers be reinstated automatically for all FTP members when all pre-NAB bilateral agreements have been terminated and when any imbalances in NAB positions resulting from the folding in of claims under bilateral agreements have been eliminated, or at an earlier date as decided by the Executive Board.
March 16, 2011
Use of Gold Sales Profits - Initial Considerations and Options
Description:
In December 2010, the Fund concluded the limited gold sale (403 metric tons) approved by the Board in September 2009. The main purpose of the sale was to generate profits to fund an endowment that would diversify the Fund’s income sources away from lending income.
In addition, the Board agreed in July 2009, before approving the sale, to a strategy pursuant to which resources linked to the gold sale would contribute to boosting the Fund’s concessional lending capacity.
Total profits from the gold sale were SDR 6.85 billion. The profits significantly exceeded those assumed in April 2008 when agreement was reached on the key features of the new income model, and in July 2009 at the time of the discussions on a financing package to support reform of the Fund’s concessional lending activities. This reflects the substantial increase in the market price of gold throughout the period of the gold sales. With the gold sale complete, it is timely for the Board to revisit the issues relating to the use of the profits.
This paper seeks to provide a basis for initial Board consideration of this topic. It focuses primarily on the options for use of the windfall profits above a price of US$935 per ounce, which was the average price required to generate resources for the endowment at the assumed gold price underlying the new income model and to implement the agreed strategy to provide SDR 0.5–0.6 billion in resources linked to gold sales as part of the 2009 concessional financing package.