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Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Difference between IMF and World Bank

Difference between IMF and World Bank
IMF (International Monetary Fund)

The work of the IMF is of three main types. Surveillance involves the monitoring of economic and financial developments, and the provision of policy advice, aimed especially at crisis-prevention. The IMF also lends to countries with balance of payments difficulties, to provide temporary financing and to support policies aimed at correcting the underlying problems; loans to low-income countries are also aimed especially at poverty reduction. Third, the IMF provides countries with technical assistance and training in its areas of expertise. Supporting all three of these activities is IMF work in economic research and statistics.

The IMF also plays an important role in the fight against money-laundering and terrorism.

World Bank Operations

The World Bank exists to encourage poor countries to develop by providing them with technical assistance and funding for projects and policies that will realize the countries' economic potential. The Bank views development as a long-term, integrated endeavor
The IMF is small (about 2,300 staff members) and, unlike the World Bank, has no affiliates or subsidiaries. Most of its staff members work at headquarters in Washington, D.C., although three small offices are maintained in Paris, Geneva, and at the United Nations in New York. Its professional staff members are for the most part economists and financial experts.
The structure of the Bank is somewhat more complex. The World Bank itself comprises two major organizations: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association (IDA). Moreover, associated with, but legally and financially separate from the World Bank are the International Finance Corporation, which mobilizes funding for private enterprises in developing countries, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, and the Multilateral Guarantee Agency. With over 7,000 staff members, the World Bank Group is about three times as large as the IMF, and maintains about 40 offices throughout the world, although 95 percent of its staff work at its Washington, D.C., headquarters. The Bank employs a staff with an astonishing range of expertise: economists, engineers, urban planners, agronomists, statisticians, lawyers, portfolio managers, loan officers, project appraisers, as well as experts in telecommunications, water supply and sewerage, transportation, education, energy, rural development, population and health care, and other disciplines.
The World Bank is an investment bank, intermediating between investors and recipients, borrowing from the one and lending to the other. Its owners are the governments of its 180 member nations with equity shares in the Bank, which were valued at about $176 billion in June 1995. The IBRD obtains most of the funds it lends to finance development by market borrowing through the issue of bonds (which carry an AAA rating because repayment is guaranteed by member governments) to individuals and private institutions in more than 100 countries. Its concessional loan associate, IDA, is largely financed by grants from donor nations. The Bank is a major borrower in the world's capital markets and the largest nonresident borrower in virtually all countries where its issues are sold. It also borrows money by selling bonds and notes directly to governments, their agencies, and central banks. The proceeds of these bond sales are lent in turn to developing countries at affordable rates of interest to help finance projects and policy reform programs that give promise of success.
Despite Lord Keynes's profession of confusion, the IMF is not a bank and does not intermediate between investors and recipients. Nevertheless, it has at its disposal significant resources, presently valued at over $215 billion. These resources come from quota subscriptions, or membership fees, paid in by the IMF's 182 member countries. Each member contributes to this pool of resources a certain amount of money proportionate to its economic size and strength (richer countries pay more, poorer less). While the Bank borrows and lends, the IMF is more like a credit union whose members have access to a common pool of resources (the sum total of their individual contributions) to assist them in times of need. Although under special and highly restrictive circumstances the IMF borrows from official entities (but not from private markets), it relies principally on its quota subscriptions to finance its operations. The adequacy of these resources is reviewed every five years.

The basic differences are.

International Monetary Fund
1) oversees the international monetary system .

2) promotes exchange stability and orderly exchange relations among its
member countries.

3) assists all members--both industrial and developing countries--that find themselves in temporary balance of payments difficulties by providing short- to medium-term credits.

4) supplements the currency reserves of its members through the allocation of SDRs (special drawing rights); to date SDR 21.4 billion has been issued to member countries in proportion to their quotas.

5) draws its financial resources principally from the quota subscriptions of its member countries.

6) has at its disposal fully paid-in quotas now totaling SDR 145 billion (about $215 billion) .

7) has a staff of 2,300 drawn from 182 member countries




World Bank

1) seeks to promote the economic development of the world's poorer countries.

2) assists developing countries through long-term financing of development projects and programs.

3) provides to the poorest developing countries whose per capita GNP is less than $865 a year special financial assistance through the International Development Association (IDA).

4) encourages private enterprises in developing countries through its affiliate, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

5) acquires most of its financial resources by borrowing on the international bond market.

6) has an authorized capital of $184 billion, of which members pay in about 10 percent.

7) has a staff of 7,000 drawn from 180 member countries.

Soft Loan:
A loan with no interest or a below-market rate of interest, or loans made by multinational development banks (such as the Asian Development fund), affiliates of the World Bank and government agencies to developing countries that would be unable to borrow at the market rate. Soft loans are loans that have lenient terms, such as extended grace periods in which only interest or service charges are due, and interest holidays. Soft loans typically offer longer amortization schedules (in some cases up to 50 years) and lower interest rates than conventional bank loans. 

Hard Loan:

A foreign loan that must be paid in the currency of a nation that has stability and a reputation abroad for economic strength (a hard currency). 

 

 




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