## Picture This (June 2024)

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Picture This (June 2024)](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/06/picture-this-june24.pdf)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/06/picture-this-june24.pdf.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/06/picture-this-june24.pdf.json)

---

### Overview
- The IMF has adapted to evolving member needs and global shocks across decades, responding to volatile commodity prices in the 1960s, oil price shocks in the 1970s, the debt crisis of the 1980s, and the transition from centrally planned to market economies in the 1990s.
- Over the past 30 years the pace of change accelerated: in response to financial crises the IMF stepped up lending and enhanced crisis prevention and resolution tool kits; shifts in global conditions and new thinking drove numerous reforms.
- The IMF has refocused to prioritize growth and poverty reduction for low-income countries, revised surveillance to better assess exchange rates and reserve adequacy amid global imbalances, and addressed governance, gender equity, digitalization, and climate change adaptation and mitigation where these issues are macro-critical.
- NOTE: Low-income countries are those eligible for the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

### Key episodes and actions
- 1. 1995–2005: Low-income-country lending reforms
  - Reformed lending tool kit to focus on growth and poverty reduction for low-income countries.
  - Extended full debt relief on outstanding obligations.
- 2. 1995–2002: Emerging market financial crises
  - Enhanced exchange rate and financial sector surveillance.
  - Developed early-warning models.
  - Focused on debt sustainability and sectoral balance sheet analysis.
  - Improved data provision and dissemination.
  - Streamlined conditionality and created contingent financing instruments for countries with strong policies but suffering contagion from neighboring crises or global shocks.
- 3. 2008–14: Global financial crisis
  - Increased lending and streamlined conditionality.
  - Enhanced tool kit.
  - Issued $284 billion worth of special drawing rights (SDRs).
  - Improved crisis prevention tools and surveillance framework to better capture cross-border spillovers and help countries manage volatile capital flows.
- 4. 2020–22: COVID-19 pandemic
  - Swiftly provided unprecedented emergency financing.
  - Suspended debt-service payments for its poorest members.
  - Issued $650 billion worth of SDRs.
  - The RST allowed wealthier members to channel SDRs to countries in greater need.
  - Emergency financing additions: plus $21.98bn emergency financing (WORLD/other members context) and plus $9.14bn emergency financing (EMERGING MARKETS/other members context).

### Financing instruments and data points
- Financing categories referenced: GRA = General Resources Account; PRGF/PRGT = Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility/Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust; RST = Resilience and Sustainability Trust.
- Charted lending and GDP growth indicators presented across groups: WORLD, EMERGING MARKETS, LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES, Advanced economies.
- Amounts approved in billions of dollars (source: IMF, Financial Data Query Tool, May 2024).
- SDR issuances cited: $284 billion (2008–14) and $650 billion (2020–22).

### Evolution of IMF functions
- Surveillance: revised framework to better assess exchange rates and reserve adequacy; improved data provision and dissemination; enhanced surveillance to capture cross-border spillovers.
- Lending and crisis tools: stepped-up lending during crises; streamlined conditionality; created contingent financing instruments; enhanced crisis prevention and resolution tool kits.
- Policy focus expansion: where macro-critical, the IMF advises on governance, gender equity, digitalization, climate change adaptation and mitigation, alongside macroeconomic, financial, and exchange rate policies.

*Source: Picture This — June 2024 (IMF, World Economic Outlook database, April 2024; IMF, Financial Data Query Tool, May 2024).*

---


_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/06/picture-this-june24.pdf_