July 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Agreement that established the post-World War II multilateral economic order, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the precursor to the World Bank, and early global trade governance systems that provided the structure and form of the World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995. A new […]
By Timon Forster It has been three years since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – the organization tasked with monitoring the international monetary and financial system – determined that its mandate encompasses the macro-economic consequences of global warming (e.g., the pressure of natural disasters on government coffers). In the meantime, the Fund has hired climate […]
By Laurissa Mühlich, Barbara Fritz and William N. Kring Following the COVID-19 pandemic, low- and middle-income countries (LICs and MICs, respectively), and in particular lower MICs, have recovered more slowly than high-income countries (HICs). LICs and MICs continue to struggle with tighter fiscal constraints in a period when they should be scaling up investments to […]
By Marina Zucker-Marques, Laurissa Mühlich, Barbara Fritz, Thomas Goda What once consisted of only the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has become a complex, multilayered and non-coordinated network of institutions aimed at supporting countries during times of financial distress. This network is known as the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN), and comprises the IMF, regional financial […]
Since the 2007-09 global financial crisis, central bank currency swaps have become a crucial element of the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN)—the set of institutions and arrangements that backstop countries in financial distress. These swaps, where credit lines between central banks aim to provide liquidity to stabilizing markets during turmoil, have two key advantages: immediate […]
By Leslie Elliott Armijo and Verónica Rubio Vega Sepehr What can an international relations (IR) perspective reveal about cooperation within regional development banks—and vice versa? From the viewpoint of Latin America, the most democratic region within the Global South and the only one where most countries have been independent polities for two centuries, there have […]
What factors help or impede international cooperation within regions of the Global South? A new working paper from Leslie Elliott Armijo and Verónica Rubio Vega Sepehr examines how variations in the geographic scope of a region can result in different types of power (im)balances among members, in turn generating important consequences for both the depth […]
The Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN) is a set of institutions and mechanisms that provide insurance against crises and financing to mitigate their impacts. It has four main elements: countries’ own international reserves; bilateral swap arrangements whereby central banks exchange currencies to provide liquidity to banking systems; regional financial arrangements (RFAs) by which countries pool […]
Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference, the following institutions have prepared this statement: Institute for Economic Justice (South Africa), Centre for Social and Economic Progress (India), Centre for Sustainable Finance at SOAS, University of London (UK), BRICS Policy Center (Brazil), Boston University Global Development Policy Center (USA) and Heinrich Böll Foundation (Germany). […]
Gender equality is a crucial component of successful development, yet austerity puts a disproportionate burden on women, increasing their economic vulnerability and affecting societal outcomes. Conversely, economic growth that leads to increased female labor force participation without compensatory investments in social care provisioning and better distribution of caregiving responsibilities will ultimately compromise investment and growth. […]