The IMF at Eighty
March 5, 2025
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IMF Communications Department
MEDIA RELATIONS
PRESS OFFICER:
Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
Speech
(As Prepared for Delivery)
A very good morning to you all. Kudo-san: thank you so much for those kind words. It is a great pleasure to be here in Japan.
Dear colleagues, let me begin by relaying Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva’s regret for not being able to be with us today. She was very much looking forward to her trip to Tokyo, and has asked me to share with you her best wishes.
I would like to start with a deep note of appreciation for our host country: a pillar of regional and global stability, a tireless advocate of trade, a technology leader and innovator, and a nation proudly on the move. For the IMF, Japan is a true partner, always generous in its support for our work. To the people of Japan the IMF says: arigatō goza‑i‑mas—thank you.
As this conference reflects on the state of the world 80 years after the end of World War Two, let me also salute the post-war rebirth of Japan. Who in 1945 could have imagined the economic miracle that would come—and the transformation of former foes into friends and allies? Living proof that prosperity and friendship can triumph.
So much of the global progress of the post-war decades was the result of a grand experiment in economic cooperation whose roots traced back to a conference of forty nations at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in July 1944. The core idea at Bretton Woods was both bold and simple: a system where interests would be secured not only by geopolitical heft, but by mutually beneficial cooperation. This is the core principle behind the creation of the IMF. It is the principle we still serve today.
After the war, reconstruction progressed rapidly, giving rise to new structures, new jobs, new trade, and new members. In 1952, Japan and West Germany were welcomed into the IMF’s family of nations.
The Fund played its designated part not so much by financing global reconstruction and development—that was the World Bank’s job—but by supporting financial stability. A system of regular peer review of national economic prospects and policies was transformed from the black ink of Article IV of our founding Treaty to a familiar and appreciated reality.
And thus were established the three core functions of the IMF:
Through the many post-war episodes of mistrust and confrontation, the IMF has always remained a place where governance works; where information and knowledge are freely exchanged; where policy lessons from one country are shared for the benefit of many others; where efficiency meets effectiveness; and where members at odds with each other sit at one table and discuss matters calmly. This is the tangible, everyday reality of the Fund.
Over the years we have, of course, had both successes and failures, but I would argue that the former outnumber the latter. I think for instance of our programs with the UK in 1977, India in 1991, or Brazil in 2002, and indeed of the examples being set today by the former program countries of East Asia and the euro area. Successes, yet each difficult in its own way when crisis raged.
As finance minister of Jamaica during difficult times, I had the opportunity to see the Fund in action from the other side of the table. It was obvious to me then—as it is now—that the IMF teams had the knowledge, the experience, and the systems. They knew what they were doing.
At the Fund, one foundational reality is well understood: countries are not companies, and in hard times the hardships of the people must always be addressed. It is the IMF that provides the closest thing sovereign states have to a framework to secure a fresh start. It is a unique and vital function for the world.
And rarely does the IMF see a quiet moment. Today, as we confront a world of low growth, high prices, and high debt, we are warning countries that there is no room for complacency on inflation; advising them on how best to rebuild their macroeconomic buffers for the new shocks that will inevitably come; and getting more granular in our engagement on policies to lift productivity and create better jobs.
Colleagues, we are at a new time of great flux for the world economy, with many countries reassessing their approaches, including in the face of structural transformations related to technology, demographics, and energy. Across the globe, voters have voiced anger at high prices and, in some cases, mistrust for an internationalist system they perceive as elitist and exclusionary. A chasm has opened between aspiration and reality—and that, in part, is fueling a challenge to the old system, with all the attendant uncertainty.
So let me conclude by sharing a few forward-looking thoughts on how, as the world navigates these choppy waters, the Fund can help steady the ship.
Four points:
In these four points I am offering a vision of an IMF that will remain faithful to, and be guided by, its core purposes as laid out in our 191‑nation Articles of Agreement—yet will be nimble, responding to the changing environment as necessary so that we can continue to serve our membership to good effect. So without further ado, let me leave you to reflect, perhaps, on my four themes—stability, growth, balance, and agility—and how they can fit together to shape a Fund for our changing times.
I look forward to hearing your discussions today—and will be particularly interested in hearing your thoughts on Japan’s role in this new world as a champion of regional and global economic cooperation.
Thank you
