Are Mr de Rato’s Spectacles Rose Tinted?: Globalization and the IMF’s medium-term strategy

Graham Bird

Published: June 2006

Since the annual meetings of the IMF in September 2005, its Managing Director, Rodrigo de Rato, has been publicizing a medium-term strategy for the institution based on the organizing principle of globalization. Mr de Rato presents the challenges facing the Fund as global economic imbalances, capital account crises and the problems of low-income countries. But do his envisaged reforms meet these challenges, and are there other issues that need to be addressed? This paper provides a critical evaluation of the main elements of the Fund’s strategy and briefly examines a number of alternative reforms.