International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organisation, the main purpose of which is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system. The IMF promotes the global monetary cooperation, facilitates international trade, creates conditions for high employment and sustainable economic growth, and helps reduce global poverty. As of August 2023, 190 countries are members of the IMF. In this sense, the IMF is an organisation with global representation and global responsibilities. It was created to provide a global service for the benefit of society, i.e. financial stability. As a product of globalisation, its priorities change by adapting to the new monetary relations in the world. The Fund's mandate was updated in 2012 to include all macroeconomic and financial sector issues that relate to international stability.
The IMF was established in July 1944 at the United Nations Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA. The 44 attending countries sought to build a framework for international economic cooperation and to avoid the recurrence of the competitive currency devaluations that contributed to the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Within its mandate, the IMF:
- provides financial resources to member countries through a system of mechanisms, the terms of which reflect the nature of the borrowing country’s balance of payments issues and imply commitments to reforms and policy adjustment to address the identified imbalances;
- promotes international cooperation on monetary matters through a mechanism of mutual consultation and mutual aid;
- supports the expansion and the balanced growth of international trade;
- promotes exchange rate stability;
- supports the establishment of a multilateral system of payments.
The Board of Governors is the supreme governing body of the IMF. It meets in person once a year and is composed of one Governor and one Alternate Governor for each member country. The Governors are appointed by the member countries and this function is usually assigned to the Minister of Finance or the Governor of the Central Bank, as is the case in Bulgaria. The Board of Governors is charged with taking the main decisions related to the functioning of the international financial institution. The Executive Board is the executive body of the IMF. It is where the responsibility for operational decision-making lies. It deals with the day-to-day business of the organisation. It is composed of 24 Executive Directors who meet regularly and in person at the Fund’s Headquarters in Washington, each representing an individual country or a group of countries, and a Managing Director who serves as the Chair of the Board.
The history of economic reforms in Bulgaria is closely linked to the history of relations with the IMF. Bulgaria has been a member of the IMF since September 25, 1990. Its quota in the IMF is SDR 896.3 million. Bulgaria concluded a total of eight agreements with the IMF during the 1991 – 2004 period. The programmes with the Fund after 1997 have been successfully completed, with Bulgaria having fulfilled all its commitments and having received the agreed financing in full.
In 2007, the country carried out an operation of early repayment of its debt to the IMF, thus repaying completely its debts to the Fund. Bulgaria’s membership in the European Union is the basis for entering into a new stage of its relations with the IMF which evolve in the context of the institution’s overall cooperation with its members, with annual reviews of macroeconomic performance and financial and economic policies being made in the context of Article IV consultations under the IMF’s Articles of Agreement (conducted on a 12-month basis), as well as expert mission visits made to Bulgaria during the year. This is the usual format in which the international financial institution interacts with countries with which there are no agreed implementation programmes.
Address of the IMF Headquarters in Washington:
International Monetary Fund
700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20431 USA
Tel: (202) 623-7000
Fax: (202) 623-4661
https://www.imf.org/external/index.htm
Office of the resident representative for Bulgaria and Romania:
Bulgarian National Bank
2, Knyaz Alexander I Square
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Tel.:(359 2) 981-4506; /4595
Fax: (359 2) 981-2524