External Evaluation Of The If Surveillance: Report By Grp Ind Exp (Eeisea0000000)

An external evaluation of IMF surveillance over members' policies. Much of the research centred on the Fund's surveillance over the last decade of a sample of twelve countries: Brazil, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and the United States. The key recommendation was that surveillance should focus as much as possible on the core issues of exchange rate policy and directly associated macroeconomic policies, rather than structural issues of a non-financial nature. Doubts were raised as to the Fund's capacity to deal adequately with such issues and there were concerns that this expansion of coverage detracted from the effectiveness of surveillance overall. The international implications of policies should also be given significantly greater attention. Responses to the report by the Managing Director of IMF and by other IMF directors are included.