Suchergebnisse

Ninth Annual MeetingThe ninth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund was held in Washington from September 24 through 29, 1954, under the chairmanship of Dr. M. W. Holtrop, Governor for the Netherlands. Two of the seven plenary sessions were held jointly with the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

It was reported on March 16, 1958, that the government of the Netherlands had informed the International Monetary Fund that it no longer required its $68,750,000 stand-by arrangement, in view of the improved reserve position of the Netherlands Bank. Accordingly, the arrangement, which was to have continued for one year from September 12, 1957, was cancelled as of the close of business on March 11.

A new exchange office was established in March by the International Monetary Fund to keep track of all new exchange restrictions imposed by member countries and to record changes in currency regulations. The office had no policing powers but was to remain in constant touch with officials in all member countries and to maintain files for consultation by bankers, foreign traders and others interested in foreign currency regulations.

Two stand-by arrangements were announced by the International Monetary Fund on September 23, 1960, one with the government of El Salvador, authorizing drawings up to the equivalent of $11.25 million for a period of six months in order to strengthen El Salvador's international reserve position prior to the marketing season for the country's cotton and coffee crops, and the other to Haiti, making available the equivalent of $6 million for a one-year period, in support of Haitian currency convertibility. El Salvador had made similar arrangements with the Fund in previous years and had repurchased in full any drawings made under these arrangements. The arrangement with Haiti was to become effective on October 1, 1960, at the expiration of Haiti's current $4-million agreement with the Fund established a year previously in connection with a stabilization program.

The twelfth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund was held jointly with the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Washington D.C., September 23–26, 1957, under the chairmanship of Miguel Cuaderno, Sr. Per Jacobsson, Managing Director, reviewed the activities of the Fund during the previous year. Emphasizing that the Fund's assistance was of a short-term nature and designed to enable countries to adopt and carry out, within a limited period of time, programs to restore stability to their economies, Mr. Jacobsson stated that the Fund was being used to help countries meet emergency needs, ease strain in the balance of payments, meet temporary exchange difficulties, and fulfill stabilization programs. Mr. Jacobsson went on to discuss various problems encountered in connection with the Fund's activities and cited, inter alia, multiple currency practices, Fund liquidity, and, in connection with general aspects of the world economy, inflation, relative values of currencies, and financing for underdeveloped countries.

The Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held its eighteenth annual meeting in Washington, D.C., from September 30 through October 4, 1963, under the chairmanship of Mr. Emilio Colombo, Governor for Italy. Introducing the annual report, Mr. Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, the new Chairman of the Executive Board and Managing Director of the Fund, welcomed the governors of the twenty member countries which had joined the Fund since the last annual meeting: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Leopoldville), Dahomey, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, and Upper Volta. With the addition of these new members the Fund had a total membership of 102. Mr. Schweitzer commented that in the fiscal year ended in April 1963 eighteen countries had purchased the equivalent of $580 million from the Fund and the equivalent of $807 million had been received in repurchases. Both purchases and repurchases were less than in the previous fiscal year when the United Kingdom had made a very large drawing. The Fund had also made stand-by arrangements with twenty countries under which $1.8 billion was available, including the recently renewed stand-by arrangement of $1.0 billion with the United Kingdom and the $500 million stand-by arrangement with the United States.

During the period March 22, 1963–June 12, 1963, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made agreements with the governments of five countries establishing the initial par values of their currencies. The agreements were as follows: 1) one Liberian dollar per United States dollar; 2) 0.347543 Nigerian pounds per United States dollar; 3) one Somali shilling equivalent to 0.14 United States dollars; and 4) 45 Afghanistan afghanis per United States dollar.

During February 1957 the government of Egypt purchased from the International Monetary Fund $15 million with Egyptian pounds. The government of India, during the same period, entered into an exchange transaction and stand-by arrangement with the Fund in a total amount of $200 million. The transaction provided for the purchase of $127.5 million from the Fund with Indian rupees. The Fund was to transfer $60 million of that amount immediately, and $67.5 million after 30 days. A stand-by arrangement to become effective on the date of the second transfer was to permit India to purchase from the Fund during the following twelve months currencies equivalent to an additional $72.5 million. Under the stand-by arrangement concluded in October 1956, France had by the middle of March made two purchases from the Fund with French francs. The first purchase, of $40 million, was made on February 14, and the second, of $60 million, was made on March 14. In April 1957, the government of Argentina purchased from the Fund $75 million with Argentine pesos. Other purchases from the Fund during the period under review included $10 million by Cuba (under a stand-by arrangement), $2.5 million by Honduras, and $0.5 million by Paraguay. In February El Salvador repurchased colones equivalent to $2.5 million; other repurchases were $3.3 million by Finland and $1.8 million by Denmark. At the request of the government of Peru, the Fund on February 15 extended for one year a stand-by arrangement enabling Peru to draw currencies up to the equivalent of $12.5 million.

The Ninth Annual Report on Exchange Restrictions of the International Monetary Fund, covering the period from May 1957 to April 1958, was transmitted to members and governors of the Fund on May 5, 1958.1 The Report noted that the period under review had showed mixed trends. While there had been relatively little overall progress in the formal relaxation of restrictions, there had been a significant strengthening of most internationally traded currencies, particularly in the opening months of 1958. There had been a marked improvement in the rates at which transferable currencies could be exchanged for convertible currencies in free markets, as well as an improvement in other rates against the dollar, particularly for the currencies of western Europe. The rates in these free markets had begun to approximate the rates in official markets. In this respect, there had been continued progress toward external convertibility.

The seventeenth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was held in Washington, D.C., from September 17 through September 21, 1962, under the chairmanship of Mr. Ahmed Zaki Saad, Governor for Saudi Arabia. In his opening address, Mr. Per Jacobsson, Managing Director of IMF, commented on the relation of the Fund's assistance to capital transactions. He remarked that although the Fund's resources had been used in situations involving capital transfers, there had been some uncertainty as to the extent to which, or the circumstances in which, the Fund's resources could be used for helping to meet those deficits in the balance of payments of members that went beyond the current account and were attributable in whole or in part to capital transfers. By a decision of July 1961 the Executive Directors were able to eliminate any doubt which had not already been dissipated by the practice of the Fund that the Fund's resources could be used to alleviate pressures brought about by capital transfers, in accordance with the criteria of Article VI and other relevant provisions of the Fund Agreement. Thus, if a country facing a disequilibrating outflow of capital were to turn to the Fund for assistance, one of the criteria which the Fund would apply would be to satisfy itself that the appropriate measures were being taken to overcome the balance of payments difficulties, and that the assistance provided by the Fund would be repaid at the earliest opportunity, and in any event not later than three to five years after the drawing.

On June 7, 1960, it was announced that the government of Guatemala had entered into a one-year stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund authorizing drawings up to $15 million in support of the country's currency. The purpose of the arrangement was to help Guatemala maintain the traditional stability of the quetzal by providing a second line of reserves to supplement other stabilization measures, such as an increase of reserve requirements against bank deposits, limitations on central bank rediscounts, and a further reduction of government expenditures. Guatemala, with a quota of $15 million, had not previously drawn upon the Fund's resources.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1956 was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on June 29, 1956. The world payments situation had improved during the year under review, the report stated; restrictions had been further relaxed, the transferability of important currencies had been extended, and discrimination, especially that resulting from bilateral arrangements, had had less influence on the direction of trade. Progress in extending multilateral trade and payments had thus been maintained, although during the year there had been no addition to the list of Fund members which had established formal convertibility of their currencies. While in general postwar investment programs had brought good returns, inflationary pressures were still strong in a number of countries, the report stated, and they had not always been kept under effective control. The report noted with satisfaction a greater readiness to take corrective or preventive measures, and that the value of flexible monetary and fiscal policies as a major means of achieving and maintaining stability was increasingly recognized. In assessing the future development of the generally encouraging world payments situation, the report cited the following relevant factors which because of their tendency to change from year to year made accurate prediction difficult: 1) the important part played in the international balance of payments by the expenditures abroad of the United States government; 2) the fact that countries whose export trade consisted mainly of primary products were especially subject to variations in export earnings; and 3) the problem of disposing of surpluses of agricultural products.

The seventh annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund was held jointly with the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Mexico City, Mexico, September 3 through 12, 1952, under the chairmanship of the Governors for Brazil, Eugenio Gudin and Horacio Lafer. Presenting the seventh annual re-port of the Fund, the Managing Director (Rooth) stated that the payments problem had persisted for so long and was so little understood that the public might lose interest in its solution, but that with positive measures by the deficit and surplus countries, he believed the problem could be solved. After remarking that it could not be solved by "retreating behind a network of restrictions and discriminations", he expressed concern with the recent spread in western Europe of dollar retention systems and similar arrangements. In the subsequent discussions of the policies and activities of the Fund as reported in the annual report, many Governors emphasized the importance of proper credit and budget policies in solving payments difficulties; some mentioned the need to recognize the responsibility of the surplus countries in restoring payments balance, it being suggested that joint discussions between surplus and deficit nations be held with the Fund; a number referred to the need for a clearer policy on the use of the Fund's resources, emphasizing the payments problems which arose in underdeveloped countries when there was a sudden depression in world markets; and several spoke about the price of gold.

The annual joint meeting of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was held at Paris from September 6 to 14, 1950 at the same time as the annual meetings of the Governors of the two organizations. At the opening joint meeting of the Fund and the Bank on September 6, the first matter considered was a draft resolution submitted by the Governor for Czechoslovakia requesting that delegates from the People's Republic of China be substituted for the delegation from the "Kuomintang group". This proposition was vehemently resisted by the Governor for China but supported by the Governors for India and Yugoslavia. After a show of hands the motion was defeated at the second joint meeting. At the fourth joint session it was agreed that the sixth annual meeting of the two organizations in 1951 would be held in the United States. Following that recommendation the joint session approved the nomination of the Governor for Canada (Douglas Abbott) as chairman for the ensuing year and the Governors for China, France, India, the United Kingdom and the United States as vice-chairmen.

The annual joint meeting of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was held in Washington from September 10 to 14, 1951, concurrently with the annual meetings of the Governors of the individual bodies. The Czechoslovakian Governor proposed at the opening meeting that delegates from the People's Republic of China be substituted (in all Fund, Bank and Joint machinery) for the delegates from the "Kuomintang group". No action, however, was taken on the "expulsion" resolution. At the closing joint session, on September 14, the Governors disposed of the remainder of the substantive work of the Joint Procedures Committee by agreeing that: 1) the seventh annual meeting of the joint Boards of Governors be held in Mexico City in the first half of September, 1952; 2) the Governor for Brazil be chairman for the joint Board of Governors for the ensuing year, while the Governors for China, France, India, the United Kingdom and the United States be vice-chairmen; 3) the composition of the Joint Procedures Committee for the ensuing year be the Governors for Brazil (chairman), Australia (vice-chairman), Lebanon (reporting member), and China, Finland, France, India, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States.