Press Release No. 11/237

Press Release: IMF Management and Staff Welcome the Report by the Independent Evaluation Office on Research at the IMF

June 21, 2011

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) management and staff welcomed the report released today by the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) on Research at the IMF: Relevance and Utilization, which focuses on the IMF’s research output through 2008.

“The report provides a balanced assessment of the quality, relevance and utilization of Fund research,” Acting Managing Director John Lipsky said in a statement. He added that he was encouraged by the report’s overall finding that research was “widely read, that it included a large number of high quality and very useful publications, and that it is appreciated by country authorities and the research community.’’

In their response, IMF staff also welcomed the IEO’s constructive recommendations on certain areas of the Fund’s research work. These included suggestions for periodic strategic reviews of research, better allocation of resources to research projects, enhanced review processes, and support for a diversity of view in Fund research. In addition, staff agreed with the IEO report’s call for promoting more openness to alternative perspectives.

Staff also agreed with the recommendation to narrow gaps in IMF research. They pointed to the efforts already underway since 2008 on increasing research in areas cited by the IEO. These include work on capital controls and macro prudential policies, fiscal policy and debt sustainability, exchange rate regimes and stability of the international monetary system, monetary and exchange rate policies, optimal reserve holdings, reserves adequacy and country insurance, policy responses to the global financial crisis, and various aspects of macro-financial linkages.