How the IMF can manage the global economy better

Institution must strengthen its credibility as a responsive and effective leader – and listen to its members

Imagine a world in which the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund were more client-driven. Ahead of the gathering – this year’s will take place in Indonesia in October – the IMF would solicit from its 189 member countries three key policy issues on which to focus, not only in official discussions but also in the numerous seminars that are held in parallel. The result would be an agenda that responded better to the continued anxiety that a growing number of policymakers – and populations – are feeling.

For much of the decade since the global financial crisis erupted, countries worldwide have been subject to what London Business School’s Hélène Rey and others have called “the global factor”: a set of external influences that countries cannot manage or control but that play an important role in determining key domestic variables. This has generated economic and financial volatility that has complicated internal policy management, fuelled political polarisation, and exacerbated social divisions.

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from US news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2zES2W1