About the Spring and Annual Meetings

Each Spring, the joint IMF-World Bank Development Committee and the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee hold meetings to discuss progress on the work of the Fund and the Bank. Plenary sessions of the IMF and the World Bank's Boards of Governors are only scheduled during the Annual Meetings in the autumn.

Each autumn, the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group hold their Annual Meetings to discuss a range of issues related to poverty reduction, international economic development and finance. The Annual Meetings provide a forum for international cooperation and enable the Fund and the Bank to better serve their member countries.

The Annual Meetings traditionally are held in Washington two years out of three and, in order to reflect the international character of the two institutions, every third year in a different member country. In addition to the meetings of the Boards of Governors, the Development Committee and the International Monetary and Financial Committee are officially convened.

Around these meetings, the IMF and the World Bank organize a number of forums to facilitate the interaction of governments and IMF-Bank staff with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), journalists, and the private sector. Indeed, every effort is made to ensure that the Annual Meetings provide an effective forum for explaining to the public—directly and through the media—the tasks, objectives, and outcomes of the work of the IMF and the World Bank. In this manner, the Meetings make a major contribution to openness and transparency.

About 10,000 people attend the Annual Meetings, including about 3,500 members of delegations from the member countries of the IMF and the World Bank, roughly 1,000 representatives of the media, and more than 5,000 visitors and special guests drawn primarily from private business, the banking community, and civil society organizations (CSO)—such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, and think tanks. In addition, IMF and World Bank staff participate in the meetings with officials of government delegations.