The votes were divided

The opposition failed to disrupt the reform at the IMF

Shareholders of the International Monetary Fund supported the beginning of reform of this organization, as a result of which the shares of each country in the capital of the IMF will be completely changed. The reform plan proposed by the head of the fund, Spaniard Rodrigo de Rato, received 90.6% of the votes, with the required 85%. This was announced yesterday at the annual meeting of shareholders of the IMF and the World Bank in Singapore.

The principle of participation of countries in the IMF differs from, for example, membership in the UN, where each country has one vote. The fund's capital is divided among the 184 member states into quotas, which determine the share of each country's vote in decision-making and the amount of borrowing available to it. Quotas are calculated using a complex formula that has not changed since the middle of the last century. The gap between the position of countries in the IMF and their real weight in the world economy forced the fund to undertake this reform. First of all, this concerns the “unfair” size of quotas for countries with developing economies. In the spring, Rodrigo de Rato said that “the international community must have a voice in the IMF.” He later clarified that the goal of the reform is to increase the participation of low-income countries in the fund (we are, obviously, talking about Africa). On the eve of the annual meeting, de Rato proposed a two-phase plan. At the first stage, the fund's capital will be increased by 1.8%, due to which the quotas of the most “underrepresented” countries (China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey) will increase. In the second stage, which is expected to be completed within two years, the quota system will be completely changed based on a new, “clear and transparent” formula. Most likely, it will be based on the GDP indicator.

As the Vremya Novostei newspaper reported (see yesterday's issue) , Mr. de Rato's proposals caused a scandal in Singapore. Several countries (India, Brazil, Egypt and Argentina), which also had reasons to increase their representation in the IMF in the first stage, loudly expressed dissatisfaction with the reform plan and announced that they would vote against it. Apparently, they managed to win over a large number of countries (together the four gained about 5%), but failed to block the reform. Russia, as Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday, voted “for” - the reform has virtually no effect on the size of our country’s quota.

And although the main meetings of the annual meeting will be held today and tomorrow, the intrigue has already been played out, and delegations have begun to leave Singapore. Already yesterday, according to Vremya Novostei, British Finance Minister Gordon Brown and Alexei Kudrin left for their homeland.

Andrey DENISOV