Agence France Presse
WASHINGTON, April 16 (AFP) - International Monetary Fund policymakers, acknowledging on Sunday that their institution is the subject of "growing public debate," pledged to make the IMF more open and accountable.
The IMF's 24-member International Monetary and Financial Committee, meeting behind police barricades and in a building surrounded by angry, chanting protesters, also hailed what it said had been the rapid recovery of the global economy in 1999 and prospects for an even better performance this year.
The committee reiterated "the critical importance of open and competitive markets" as a key component in growth and stability and called for improved access to industrialized countries for exports from developing nations.
It also welcomed a new proposal from the IMF executive board to safeguard Fund resources by requiring borrowing countries to publish annual central bank financial statements that are independently audited according to international standards.
In a nine-page communique issued after a day-long meeting here, the committee noted -- with great understatement -- that its deliberations had "taken place against the background of a growing public debate about the directions in which the IMF and the international financial system should evolve to adapt to a rapidly changing environment."
Despite improving global economic conditions, the IMF has come under sharp attack not only from protesters but from nongovernmental organizations, academicians and US lawmakers.
The Fund is pilloried by some for harming the interests of the poor, by others for squandering public money to bail out imprudent investors and by still others for offering bad advice to countries in crisis.
The statement stressed that the IMF had "undergone continuous change" to meet the new challenges but agreed that more needed to be done.
"The Committee therefore pledges to continue to work toward making the IMF more effective, transparent and accountable," the statement said.
In their review of national economies, IMF policymakers called for "prudent" monetary and fiscal practices in the United States to maintain the expansion and said Europe should strive to preserve its improved momentum through low inflation.
In Japan, according to the committee, the accent should be on "supportive" macroeconomic polices to sustain a recovery, suggesting IMF opposition to any move by the Japanese central bank to abandon its near-zero interest rate policy.
Elsewhere in Asia, notably China and India, policies still need to be directed toward supporting recovery from the 1997-1998 financial crisis.
Russia, meanwhile, will only be able to sustain its improved economic performance by strengthening the rule of law and creating an attractive climate for foreign and domestic investors.
The committee maintained that the Fund's financial support should be available to all member countries, both for short-term balance of payments problems and longer-term structural difficulties.
A recent report from a blue-ribbon commission appointed by the US Congress -- highly critical of the IMF -- had recommended that the Fund no longer provide long-term assistance to developing countries and should instead cancel the debts they owe the IMF.
The committee, finally, urged all creditors to make the joint IMF-World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) "the highest priority."
The mesaure lightens the debt burden of poor countries that agree to IMF reforms and poverty reduction efforts.:
