São Paulo – Cooperation between countries helped the world face the crisis that began late last year. This was the tone of the address of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at the organisation’s annual meeting, yesterday (6th), in Istanbul, Turkey. " We have seen an unprecedented degree of economic policy collaboration, encompassing more countries than ever before," said Strauss-Kahn.
According to the managing director, the leaders of the G-20, a group that includes the main emerging economies on the globe, reaped the greatest advantages of policy cooperation in this period. "In this modern globalised world, it no longer makes sense for global economic policy to be the concern of just a small group of countries. Reflecting this new reality, one of the great changes over the past year has been the ascent of the G-20," he said.
Strauss-Kahn’s address was aligned with the IMF decision of changing its representation for emerging nations to have more voice in the institution. As had already been announced before, in his address, the managing director stressed that the organisation is engaged in transferring 5% of IMF participation, currently in the hands of developed nations, to developing nations. This should take place by January 2011. The Brics – Brazil, Russia, India and China – had called for the transfer of a 7% share.
Strauss-Kahn pointed out that the crisis has not yet been solved, but added that the world is living a better situation. "The growth engine seems to be starting up again. Our latest projections suggest that global economic activity will expand by about 3% in 2010, after contracting by 1% in 2009," he said. The executive suggested that countries make use of the opportunity to configure a new post-crisis world. The meeting was the joint annual assembly of the IMF and the World Bank.
*Translated by Mark Ament
