International Monetary Fund
International financial institution
Follow International Monetary Fund on Notably News to receive short updates to your email — rarely!
| October 21 2024 | Liechtenstein became the 191st member of the IMF. |
| June 2023 | IMF announced development of a platform for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to enable transactions between nations, with Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warning that cryptocurrency could fill the gap if central banks fail to agree on a common platform. |
| April 2023 | IMF launched the Universal Monetary Unit (Units), an international central bank digital currency through their Digital Currency Monetary Authority, designed to facilitate international banking and trade with SWIFT transaction capabilities. |
| January 24 2022 | Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas was appointed as the new chief economist of the IMF. |
| January 21 2022 | Gita Gopinath, an Indian-American economist, was appointed as the first deputy managing director of the IMF. |
| 2021 | IMF approved a US$1 billion loan to Uganda, an autocratic regime, despite protests from Ugandans in Washington, London, and South Africa. |
| 2021 | Continued criticism from Oxfam regarding IMF's austerity measures in low-income countries during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting potential negative impacts on healthcare spending. |
| 2021 | A study found that the IMF's surveillance activities have a substantial impact on sovereign debt, with greater effects in emerging economies compared to high-income economies. |
| 2020 | A study was published examining the relationship between IMF lending and democratic stability, finding democracy as a potential precursor to economic stability. |
| 2020 | Oxfam criticized the IMF for imposing strict austerity measures on low-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially hindering their healthcare response. |
| April 13 2020 | IMF announced it would provide immediate debt relief to 25 member countries under its Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) program. |
| March 12 2020 | IMF leader Kristalina Georgieva announced readiness to mobilize $1 trillion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to a previously announced $50 billion fund. |
| October 1 2019 | Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist, became the Managing Director and Chairperson of the IMF. |
| August 2019 | The International Monetary Fund removed the age limit of 65 or over for its managing director position, expanding potential candidate eligibility. |
| 2018 | The Supreme Court of Spain confirmed Rodrigo Rato's embezzlement sentence. |
| 2017 | The Audiencia Nacional found Rodrigo Rato guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to imprisonment. |
| 2017 | A systematic review confirmed that IMF's Structural Adjustment Programs had detrimental effects on maternal and child health across multiple countries. |
| 2017 | A study found no evidence that IMF lending programs undermined democracy in borrowing countries, suggesting modest positive impacts on democratic scores. |
| 2016 | IMF's research department published a critical self-assessment report titled 'Neoliberalism: Oversold?', acknowledging that the organization had been overly promoting fiscal austerity policies and financial deregulation, which contributed to financial crises and economic inequality. |
| July 5 2016 | Christine Lagarde was re-elected by consensus for a second five-year term as IMF managing director, being the only candidate nominated for the position. |
| 2015 | The IMF was referenced in the film 'Our Brand Is Crisis' as a point of political tension, highlighting Bolivian population's concerns about potential electoral interference. |
| 2015 | Former IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato was arrested on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. |
| December 2015 | United States Congress adopted legislation authorizing the 2010 Quota and Governance Reforms, which increased total member quotas from XDR 238.5 billion to XDR 477 billion and shifted over 6 percent of quota shares to dynamic emerging market and developing countries. |
| 2014 | China established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as an alternative international financial institution. |
| July 2014 | At the 6th BRICS summit, member nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) announced the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a US$100 billion framework for providing liquidity through currency swaps to address balance-of-payments pressures. |
| June 13 2014 | The IMF executive board took up the new sovereign debt policy report, proposing 'reprofiling operations' for members who have lost market access but have sustainable debt. |
| May 22 2014 | IMF staff formulated an updated policy on sovereign debt in a report titled 'The Fund's Lending Framework and Sovereign Debt: Preliminary Considerations'. |
| March 2014 | IMF secured an $18 billion bailout fund for Ukraine's provisional government following the Revolution of Dignity. |
| May 20 2013 | The sovereign debt restructuring report was discussed by the IMF board. |
| April 2013 | IMF staff first revisited the topic of sovereign debt restructuring since 2005, producing a report discussing recent experiences in Greece, St Kitts and Nevis, Belize, and Jamaica. |
| March 25 2013 | A €10 billion international bailout for Cyprus was agreed by the Troika, requiring the closure of Cyprus's second-largest bank and imposing a one-time bank deposit levy. |
| March 15 2012 | IMF executive directors approved the Greek bailout program for XDR 23.8 billion, which included private bondholders taking a haircut of over 50%. |
| 2011 | Release of 'Debtocracy', an independent Greek documentary film critically examining the IMF's policies. |
| 2011 | BRIC states issued a statement challenging the traditional European appointment to the managing director role, calling for a merit-based selection process that would open the position to qualified candidates from any part of the world. |
| 2011 | IMF economists defined the maximum sustainable debt level for a polity as 120%. |
| October 2011 | A second Greek bailout package of over €100 billion was negotiated, during which Greek Prime Minister Papandreou was forced from office. |
| June 28 2011 | Christine Lagarde was confirmed as the new managing director of the IMF for a five-year term starting on 5 July 2011. |
| May 18 2011 | Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the IMF following his arrest in connection with sexual assault charges in a New York hotel room. |
| March 2011 | African Union Ministers of Economy and Finance proposed establishing an African Monetary Fund as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund. |
| March 2011 | The 2008 Amendment on Voice and Participation officially came into effect, establishing a new structure where seven countries (United States, Japan, China, Germany, France, United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia) each directly appoint an executive director. |
| 2010 | G20 agreed on reforms to give more voting powers to emerging economies, aiming to increase representation of countries like China and Brazil in the IMF's decision-making process. |
| 2010 | The Greek government-debt crisis began, occurring at the IMF-defined maximum sustainable debt level of 120%. |
| May 2010 | IMF participated in the first Greek bailout totaling €110 billion, addressing public debt accumulation and requiring Greek government to adopt austerity measures to reduce deficit from 11% in 2009 to below 3% by 2014. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article International Monetary Fund, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.