World Bank & IMF (1 Viewer)

[marsenal]

Would someone please be able explain to me the main differences between the World Bank and the IMF.

 

[bobo123]

world bank assists poor dudes for infrastructure/capital development projects while IMF gives money to relieve temporary exchange rate/foreign capital reserve problems


i think..........

 

[AGB]

yeah....the world bank was originally established to help world countries virtually destroyed by war II, however it is not as significant as it used to be

and the imf hasnt been doing too well lately......they hav been severely criticised with their dealing of the situation in russia (transition from communism) and south america (successive collapse of economies) as well as the asian crisis

 

[marsenal]

Would it be fair to say that World Bank lends out money for projects the country chooses to perform out of their own reasoning (and projects that they don't neccessarily need to perform), whereas the IMF provides funding to countries that are in financial crisis and in effect don't have much of a choice in whether they should or shouldn't borrow, thus meaning that the IMF can impose unfair regulations on that country.

 

[bobo123]

i think IMF are suppose to be the good guys
they try to alleviate temporary exchange rate externalities of globalisation without bias i think

 

[AGB]

the world bank focuses on developing countries and usually places certain restrictions on them in return for funds

the imf is responsible for the maintenance of the global financial system. they achieve this primarily through currency crisis management i.e. they recently lent shit loads (like a billion $$$ ???) to argentina to help them out coz they r pretty much royally f**ked

 

[Bambul]

Here's what I know. Some of it might be a little off, but hopefully it will help you understand the IMF a bit more.

The IMF was set up when the world had almost universally pegged exchage rates. The idea was that each country would peg its exchange rate, buying surplus currency and selling when shortages occured. If the central bank ran out of foreign reserves then it could borrow from the IMF in the short run and devalue its currencies exchange rate in the long run.

Up until the mid 90's about half of the wolds countries still ran with fixed exchange rate systems, although in the previous decade many have floated (eg. Argentina, Thailand, Indonesia) whereas a few have maintained them (eg. China, Malaysia, Hong Kong).

Now the IMF lends money more to countries that have trouble raising funds to fund their budget deficits (because the capital markets see them as too risky and will only lend to developed economies in North America, Western Europe and part of East Asia) than to countries that need to prop up their exchange rates.

 

[sukiyaki]

from what i know: (i could be wrong)

world bank - primary role is to help poor countries by providing funds and infrastructure.

Imf - stablises the economy and intervenes in the economy. Usually imposes a more "western" economy in the nation.

hmm i dunno =(

 

[shaynO]

imf is more for temporary bail-outs for countries that screwed up

world bank is for more permanent projects to try to improve economy/living standards of 3rd world impoverished countries

i think so