Picture This: The Evolving IMF

Over the past 30 years the IMF has adapted to global shocks and evolving member needs The IMF has always adapted to the evolving needs of its member countries, responding to challenges like volatile commodity prices in the 1960s, oil price shocks in the 1970s, the debt crisis of the 1980s, and the transition from centrally planned to market economies in the 1990s. In the past 30 years, however, the pace of change has accelerated. In response to financial crises, the IMF not only stepped up lending (see charts below) but also enhanced its crisis prevention and resolution tool kits. Shifts in global economic conditions and new ways of thinking have also driven numerous reforms. For example, after a decade of sluggish growth in low-income countries in the mid-1990s, the IMF refocused its approach to prioritize growth and poverty reduction. Global imbalances emerged in the mid-2000s, and the IMF revised its surveillance framework and developed new tools to better assess exchange rates and reserve adequacy.