News Brief

IMF Announces An External Evaluation of Its Surveillance Role

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved proposals by its Evaluation Group, chaired by Bernd Esdar, IMF Executive Director for Germany, for an external evaluation of the effectiveness of the IMF’s surveillance over members’ policies under Article IV of the Articles of Agreement.

The evaluation will focus on the effectiveness of all aspects of IMF surveillance and will be carried out by three independent experts: Mr. Ricardo Arriazu, Professor of Macroeconomics and Monetary Theory, Universidad Catolica, Argentina; Mr. John Crow, former Governor of the Bank of Canada; and Professor Niels Thygesen, Professor of Economics, University of Copenhagen, under the chairmanship of Mr. Crow. The experts have been asked to assess the overall effectiveness of IMF surveillance in identifying those macroeconomic, structural, and financial weaknesses and imbalances in member countries and the world economy that are an obstacle to achieving sustainable non-inflationary economic growth and external viability. The experts are expected to comment on the appropriateness of the substance of IMF surveillance recommendations, on the impact of these recommendations on members’ policies, and on the procedures and methods of surveillance.

It is expected the evaluators will start their work in July 1998, and they are expected to complete their report no later than June 1999.

This is the second external evaluation project approved by the IMF’s Executive Board. The first external evaluation concerned the IMF’s enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF), which was published asExternal Evaluation of the ESAF, and is also available on the IMF’s website (http://www.imf.org).