Keep up to date on the Bank/IMF annual meetings (7-13 October) with the Bretton Woods Project's dedicated web page which will contain information and analysis on the key issues and events.
The IMF has put itself out of step with Europe on the issue of financial transaction taxes.
In July the IMF board approved a review of the Fund’s transparency policy. Despite staff finding further room for improvement, the board rejected any substantive changes to the policy.
Newly emerged internal documents from the World Banks’ own legal unit reveal strong criticism of the controversial Doing Business rankings following the independent review panel’s critical final report in June.
Alongside development and economic issues, Pakistan will be tackling the debt repayments that the country is scheduled to make in the next two years and beyond thanks to a $6.64 billion IMF loan agreement. The debt burden is suffocating public spending.
On the sidelines of this week's G20 summit, BRICS nations are expected to reveal details of how their proposed $100 billion alternative to the IMF will operate.
In October 2012, the Tunisian government submitted a draft bill to the Constituent Assembly to shape a legal and institutional framework favourable to public-private partnerships (PPP).
As the World Bank's attention moves from goal-setting to implementation of a new strategy, it is becoming clear that it intends to further prioritise the role of the private sector and adopt many practices of its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as the main pillars for the whole group.
The World Bank, in conjunction with the G20, is reinvigorating its infrastructure focus, paying particular attention to leveraging resources from the private sector and investing in fragile and conflict affected states. It announced a return to big hydropower projects, despite continued concerns about projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala and Uganda.
Voice Mohne, chair of the council for non-governmental organisations in Malawi, declared to President Joyce Banda at a May public meeting that the adoption of the "full set of IMF reforms" by Banda's government was "too much for an average Malawian to absorb", because "there is no meaningful safety net mechanism".
A May IMF staff discussion note evaluated international efforts to address gaps in regulation of "a relatively small number of large, complex financial institutions" which remain "very difficult to regulate, supervise and resolve".
Following the publication of the Fund's response to the IEO evaluation report which was endorsed by the Board in April, the IMF has published its three-part implementation plan on international reserves including a successor paper updating the Fund's 2011 work on reserve adequacy.
At the 80th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF, global civil society must maintain pressure on the Brazilian and South African G20 presidencies to ensure the forth Financing for Development Conference in 2025 results in urgently required international financial architecture reform.
