## IMF Survey : IMF Work Agenda Stresses Agile, Integrated, Member-Focused Approach

_IMF News, December 15, 2015_

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## Bibliographic details
- Published: December 15, 2015

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### Major global transitions shaping the work agenda
- Three transitions driving the IMF’s engagement:
  - "The prospect of raising interest rates in the United States and its consequences"—impacting advanced economies and emerging markets.
  - "China’s rebalancing"—China’s economy is expected to slow as it rebalances growth; important in 2016.
  - "Falling commodity prices"—a phenomenon affecting many emerging market economies, partly a consequence of China’s rebalancing.
- Emerging markets: slowing in recent years; tightening financial conditions could "put further pressure on them and make it more difficult for them to converge."

### IMF Work Program priorities and structure
- The latest IMF Work Program centers on translating the directions in the Global Policy Agenda into a concrete plan for "the next twelve months."
- Agenda highlights:
  - Support growth.
  - Invest in resilience and safeguard financial stability.
  - Implement structural reforms for sustainable and inclusive medium-term growth.
  - Fortify the international monetary system.

### AIM: Agility, Integration, Member focus
- Agility:
  - Respond to ongoing transitions, anticipate spillovers and consequences before they happen.
  - Focus on lifting growth where "the room for policy maneuver is decreasing."
- Integration:
  - Better align policy advice across sectors and exploit synergies across work streams.
  - Example: integrate capacity building more closely with surveillance and lending operations.
  - Analyze macrofinancial and other linkages together rather than separately (e.g., U.S. interest rate rises and emerging markets).
- Member-focused:
  - Engage with membership at the outset of studies or policy changes and seek feedback at the conclusion.

### Emphasis on structural reforms to raise potential growth
- Post-global financial crisis: growth fell and "potential growth was revised downward."
- Structural reform as a vehicle to raise potential growth:
  - Across all economy categories (low-income, emerging markets, advanced), two reforms with large payoffs: banking sector reforms and infrastructure spending.
  - Other reforms are stage-of-development specific (examples given: labor market and product market reforms in Europe; financial deepening, financial inclusion, and infrastructure spending in other regions).
- Shift in emphasis: greater focus on structural reforms to raise growth potential and build resilience, rather than only responding to crises.

### Capacity development role and evidence
- Capacity development strengthens resilience through transfer of technology and skills via technical assistance, classroom or online training, and regional training and technical assistance centers.
- Study cited: countries with a long-term engagement with the IMF "performed better in terms of growth and spending on social sectors"; performance improvement attributed to capacity development and institutional strengthening that allowed countries to prevent crises rather than respond after a crisis.

### Support for the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and Financing for Development follow-up
- Concrete measures delivered in connection with the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa:
  - "We expanded access to all of our concessional facilities by 50 percent—making more money available for eligible low-income countries."
  - "We set the interest rate at zero for all loans extended under the Rapid Credit Facility, a facility focused on countries hit by natural disasters and fragile or post-conflict states."
- Planned follow-up work over "the next several months":
  - Analyze spillover effects of international tax initiatives.
  - Work on financial deepening and inclusion.
  - Support domestic revenue mobilization, expenditure efficiency and effectiveness, and attracting and managing capital flows.

### Engagement on nontraditional macro-relevant issues
- The IMF will engage on issues outside its traditional focus when they affect the Fund’s macrostability mandate.
- Examples of such topics included in the work program: inequality, climate change, and gender.
- Approach: proactively factor these issues into IMF work to "formulate appropriate positions and advice before they create macrofinancial instability."

*Source: IMF Survey, December 15, 2015.*

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## References

- [https://www.imf.org/en/News/country-focus](https://www.imf.org/en/News/country-focus)
- [PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)
- [Policy](https://www.imf.org/en/news/search)
- [Global policy agenda](http://www.imf.org/external/ns/cs.aspx?id=318)
- [Latest global outlook](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2015/RES100615A.htm)
- [https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sopol121415a_