What is IMF?
IMF is the acronym of International Monetary Fund, which is an international organization with the purpose of regulating and acting directly on the functioning of the global financial system. The IMF was founded in 1944, and has more than 187 countries as its allies.
The IMF headquarters are in Washington, DC, and the agency emerged shortly after the end of World War II. The United States, after that moment, became concerned about the financial situation of the countries, and decided to create a body that could monitor all countries and avoid any disaster.
The IMF looks after countries’ operations by monitoring exchange rates and the balance of payments, while ensuring the monetary stability of each associated country. The main objective of the IMF is to prevent imbalances in the financial sector and exchange rate systems from harming the expansion of trade between other countries in the world.
Each member country of the IMF has a quota, that is, a value that has to be sent to the organ in the form of contribution, which is determined based on its economic indicators, such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The more countries contribute to the IMF, the greater their weight of voting in decisions.