Rethinking and Reforming the IMF

A new allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) amounting to some $650 billion is now expected the end of August. This allocation of an IMF reserve asset, intended to help countries weather the economic crisis created by COVID-19, will be more than 2½ times the size of the last allocation and subs...

Climate change poses extraordinary threats to macroeconomic stability and global prosperity, and since the IMF’s purpose is to foster both objectives, its help in addressing these threats is central to its mandate. While the IMF is focusing on how to adapt its policy advice, a strong case can be mad...

Most observers gave the IMF high marks for its initial response to the COVID-19 crisis. It responded quickly with emergency financing to 86 countries, including a fivefold increase in its concessional lending to low-income countries. And its leadership was quick to recognize that the unpreceden...

The decision to allocate $650 billion of special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund to the global economy is welcome. One way to use this extra ration of global liquidity will be to bolster the concessional lending pot the IMF has to help low-income countries—the Poverty R...