IMF Survey Adapts to Reflect IMF's Evolving Role and Openness

• Author: David M. Cheney
• Position: Editor, IMF Survey
• Pages: 255-256

Page 255

The IMF has sought increasingly to explain itself to the public through issuing a range of publications, as well as press releases, fact sheets, and speeches by its senior managers. The IMF Survey was created to further help in this effort. It was introduced in August 1972 at a time of momentous change in the international economy and, consequently, at the IMF (see story, page 252). The Bretton Woods system was on the verge of collapse; oil prices had quadrupled and were threatening the stability of the global economy; and high and persistent inflation was undermining growth in much of the industrial world, with damaging spillover effects on developing countries. These developments suggested the need for a periodical to explain the significance of these changes-notably, the new international monetary system post-Bretton Woods-and the IMF's adaptation to them, and to disseminate more nonconfidential information on member country economies.

The IMF's publications program emerged largely in response to a provision in the IMF's Articles of Agreement that "[The IMF] shall act as a center for the collection and exchange of information on monetary and financial problems, thus facilitating the preparation of studies designed to assist members in developing policies that further the purposes of the Fund" (Article 8, Section 5(c)). The IMF's charter requires the institution to publish only an Annual Report, an audited statement of accounts, and IMF holdings of members' gold and currencies; it is also required to report annually on exchange market restrictions maintained by members. Other publications-including the IMF Survey-have been introduced over time in response to requests from the Executive Board or to needs perceived by the IMF's management and staff.

Jay H. Reid, former Chief Information Officer, introduced the concept of a biweekly newsletter. Reid recalls that the publication would not have been welcome in the early days of the IMF, as "national authorities reacted to war damage, debt, and inflation with restrictions on foreign exchange and also on public information." The IMF Survey was designed from the outset to be the IMF's journal of record, publishing all press releases, speeches by senior management, and data on IMF financial activity and country information. In its early days, under the editorship of Charles Gardner, the IMF Survey described the activities of the IMF in the broader context of international economic and...