From The Antigua Observer

WASHINGTON (CMC) – Seven years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has been helping Caribbean and other countries move from stabilization to sustainable growth.

In her foreword to the Washington-based financial institution’s “Annual Report 2014 – From Stabilization to Sustainable Growth,” managing director Christine Lagarde says the world still has a way to go to secure a sustainable recovery marked by strong growth that supports rapid job creation and benefits all.

“The recovery is ongoing, but it is still too slow and fragile, subject to the vagaries of financial sentiment,” she says. “Millions of people are still looking for work. The level of uncertainty might be diminishing, but it is certainly not disappearing.”

But throughout the crisis and in the recovery period, Lagarde says the IMF has been, and continues to be, an “indispensable agent of economic cooperation” for its membership.

The report covers the work of the IMF’s executive board and contains financial statements for the year May 1, 2013, to April 30, 2014.

It describes the IMF’s support for its 188 member-countries, with an emphasis on the core areas of IMF responsibility: assessing their economic and financial policies, providing financing where needed, and building capacity in key areas of economic policy.

On the financial front, the IMF said it continued to support members’ reform efforts across the globe.

This year, the Fund’s executive board approved US $21.5 billion in financing for member countries, plus US$220 million in concessional financing for low-income countries, such as those in the Caribbean.

The IMF said the board reviewed facilities such as the Flexible Credit Line, the Precautionary and Liquidity Line, and the Rapid Financing instrument – “to make sure that they continue to help countries as effectively as possible.”

The membership also agreed to transfer gold profits to help meet the financing needs of low-income members in the years ahead.

Since the crisis broke, the IMF said it has provided training to all of its members and technical assistance to 90 percent of them, helping countries design, build, and strengthen the institutions that make up the building blocks of economic success.

The Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda, laid out at both the Annual Meetings in 2013 and the Spring Meetings in 2014, emphasized the need to strengthen the coherence of policies and cooperation among policymakers.

The priorities are clear, according to the IMF: “Advanced economies need to focus on measured and well-communicated policy choices to secure the recovery; emerging markets need to strengthen their fundamentals, reduce their vulnerabilities, and step up structural reforms; and everyone needs to embrace cooperation and engage in dialogue.”

IMAGE: IMF’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde. (www.telegraph.co.uk)

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