A recovery is underway, but the economic fallout from the global pandemic could be with us for years to come. With the crisis exacerbating prepandemic vulnerabilities, country prospects are diverging. Nearly half of emerging market and developing economies and some middle-income countries are now at risk of falling further behind, undoing much of the progress made toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
This paper reviews key findings of the IMF’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ended June 1947. The report highlights that in the two years since the end of the Second World War, considerable progress has been made toward rebuilding the economies of the devastated and disrupted countries, although the work is far from complete. A number of countries in Europe have succeeded in approaching or even exceeding the pre-war levels of industrial production, but in others, output still lags far behind.
This paper reviews key findings of the IMF’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ended April 1948. The report highlights that during 1947 and in the early part of 1948, considerable progress was made in strengthening the economies that suffered devastation and dislocation as a result of the war. Over the world, generally production rose and recovery continued, despite widespread political tension and conflict, and disturbances. In nearly all countries, however, the need and demand for goods continued to be abnormally great, and there were increasing difficulties in meeting international payments for import surpluses.
Written by Margaret Garritsen de Vries, former Historian of the IMF, the book describes the policies and activities the IMF has pursued in helping members achieve balane of payments adjustment. Separate treatment is given to industrial and developing countries, since their balance of payments problems have differed. As examples, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Colombia, and Mexico as discussed.
"Think of the federal government as a gigantic insurance company (with a side line business in national defense and homeland security) which only does its accounting on a cash basis-only counting premiums and payouts as they go in and out the door. An insurance company with cash accounting is not an insurance company at all. It is an accident waiting to happen." Peter R. Fisher, former Bush Administration Undersecretary of the Treasury "Our objective in preparing the fiscal year 2005 Financial Report of the U.S. Government is to give Congress and the American people a timely and useful report on the cost of the Federal Government's operations." John W. Snow, former Bush Administration Secretary of the Treasury "Scoring the budget on an accrual basis-the private sector norm and, I believe, a sensible direction for federal budget accounting-would better underscore the tradeoffs we face. Under accrual accounting, benefits would be counted as they are earned by workers rather than when they are paid out by the government." Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board "The significance of these accrual-based reports is that they show the implications of current budgetary decisions over a longer time horizon…. This information is therefore an important element of the debate about the real effects of governmental commitments." Paul H. O'Neill, former Bush Administration Secretary of the Treasury "[A] practical management tool for policy-makers and a source of useful information for the public about the assets, liabilities, and operations of the government." Lawrence H. Summers, former Clinton Administration Secretary of the Treasury "We believe that the publication of this financial report is an important step in providing the American public with useful information about their government's assets, liabilities and operations." Robert E. Rubin, former Clinton Administration Secretary of the Treasury In December 2005, the White House published its Financial Report of the United States Government-only 2000 copies were printed despite the purpose of the report being to explain the country's financial wellbeing to Congress and the American people. Now, for the first time, that report is widely published so the American people can see what's really going on with the nation's finances.
During the past financial year, the IMF’s 189 member countries faced a number of pressing challenges. IMF work on these challenges - slower trade, declining productivity, gender inequality, inclusive growth, and debt management - is a central focus of this 2017 Annual Report.
This paper reviews key findings of the IMF’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ended April 1949. The report highlights that the unbalanced conditions that have characterized the world economic situation since the end of the war still prevail. In many countries, there remains a striking discrepancy between demand and productive capacity, and an even greater discrepancy between the need for imports and capacity to pay for them. Until effective measures are taken to meet these closely related problems, there can be little hope of achieving the expansion of world trade on a multilateral basis.
