List of International Monetary Fund Members 2024

Last Updated: 3 December 2023

Many a time we hear about IMF or International Monetary Fund but do you know what is International Monetary Fund and what its Functions are?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international financial institution formed in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries (189 UN Countries and Kosovo).

Though IMF was created in 1944 it was started on 27 December 1945 at the Bretton Woods Conference primarily by the ideas of Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes. IMF came into formal existence in 1945 with 29 member countries and aimed to reconstruct the international monetary system.

The stated mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is “Working to Foster Global Monetary Cooperation, Secure Financial Stability, Facilitate International Trade, Promote High Employment and Sustainable Economic Growth, and Reduce Poverty Around the World.”

It now plays a central role in the management of balance of Payments Difficulties and International Financial Crises. Countries contribute funds to a pool through a quota system from which countries experiencing balance of payments problems can borrow money. As of 2016, the fund had XDR 477 billion (about US$667 billion).

Page Contents

IMF At A Glance

No.	Header	Information
1	Formation	IMF
2	Formation	27^th December 1945
3	Type	International Financial Institution
4	Purpose	1) Promote International Monetary Co-operation 2) Facilitate International Trade 3) Foster Sustainable Economic Growth 4) Make Resources Available to Members Experiencing Balance of Payments Difficulties 5) Prevent and Assist with Recovery from International Financial Crises
5	Headquarters	Washington, D.C., U.S.
6	Membership	190 Countries
7	Official language	English
8	Managing Director	Kristalina Georgieva
9	First Deputy Managing Director	Gita Gopinath
10	Chief Economist	Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
11	Main Organ	United Nations
12	Budget (2022)	$1.2 billion USD
13	Staff	2,400+
14	Website	www.imf.org

Functions of IMF

It works to foster global growth and economic stability by providing policy advice and financing the members by working with developing countries to help them achieve macroeconomic stability and reduce poverty.

Upon the founding of the IMF, its three primary functions were to oversee the fixed exchange rate arrangements between countries, thus helping national governments manage their exchange rates and allowing these governments to prioritize economic growth, and providing short-term capital to aid the balance of payments.

The IMF was also intended to help mend the pieces of the international economy after the Great Depression and World War II as well as to provide capital investments for economic growth and projects such as infrastructure.

IMF negotiates conditions on lending and loans under their policy of conditionality, which was established in the 1950s.

The IMF is mandated to oversee the international monetary and financial system and monitor its member countries’ economic and financial policies.

The IMF provides alternate sources of financing such as the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility.

IMF Member Countries

Not all member countries of the IMF are sovereign states, and therefore not all “Member Countries” of the IMF are members of the United Nations.

Amidst “Member Countries” of the IMF that are not member states of the UN are non-sovereign areas with special jurisdictions that are officially under the sovereignty of full UN member states, such as Aruba, Curaçao, Hong Kong, and Macao, as well as Kosovo.

All members of the IMF are also International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) members and vice versa.

Former members are Cuba (which left in 1964) and Taiwan, which was ejected from the IMF in 1980 after losing the support of then United States President Jimmy Carter and was replaced by the People’s Republic of China.

Taiwan Province of China is still listed in the official IMF indices.

Apart from Cuba, the other UN states that do not belong to the IMF are Liechtenstein, Monaco, and North Korea.

Former Czechoslovakia was expelled in 1954 for “failing to provide required data” and was readmitted in 1990, after the Velvet Revolution.

Poland withdrew in 1950 allegedly pressured by the Soviet Union but returned in 1986.

Andorra became the 190^th member on 16^th October 2020.

IMF Executive Directors

(As of February 2019)

24 Executive Directors make up the executive board. The executive directors represent all 189 member countries in a geographically based roster. Countries with large economies have their own executive director, but most countries are grouped into constituencies representing four or more countries.

No.	Country	Region	No. of Member(s) Represented	Director	Country with Most Votes
1	Argentina	Southern South America	6	Gabriel Lopetegui	Argentina
2	Australia	Far East	15	Nigel Ray	South Korea
3	Belgium	1) Benelux 2) Israel 3) Eastern Europe	15	Anthony De Lannoy	Netherlands
4	Brazil	Northern South America	11	Alexandre Tombini	Brazil
5	Canada	1) North Atlantic 2) Caribbean	12	Louise Levonian	Canada
6	China	China	1	Jin Zhongxia	China
7	Colombia	1) Spain 2) Central America	8	Leonardo Villar	Spain
8	Egypt	1) North Africa 2) Middle East	11	Hazem Beblawi	United Arab Emirates
9	France	France	1	Herve de Villeroche	France
10	Germany	Germany	1	Steffen Meyer	Germany
11	India	Indian subcontinent	4	Surjit Bhalla	India
12	Indonesia	Southeast Asia	13	Juda Agung	Indonesia
13	Iran	1) Iran 2) Middle East	8	Jafar Mojarrad	Iran
14	Italy	Mediterranean Europe	6	Domenico G. Fanizza	Italy
15	Japan	Japan	1	Masaaki Kaizuka	Japan
16	Mauritania	Africa 2	23	Mohamed-Lemine Raghani	Democratic Republic of the Congo
17	Russia	Russia	2	Aleksei V. Mozhin	Russia
18	Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabia	1	Maher Mouminah	Saudi Arabia
19	South Africa	Africa 1	23	Dumisani Mahlinza	South Africa
20	Sweden	Northern Europe	8	Thomas Östros	Sweden
21	Switzerland	1) Switzerland 2) Poland 3) Near East	9	Paul Inderbinen	Switzerland
22	Turkey	Central Europe	8	Raci Kaya	Turkey
23	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	1	Shona E. Riach	United Kingdom
24	United States	United States	1	Mark Rosen	United States

IMF Managing Directors

The IMF is led by a managing director, who is head of the staff and serves as Chairman of the executive board. The managing director is the most powerful position at the IMF. Historically, the IMF’s managing director has been a European citizen and the president of the World Bank has been an American citizen.

Term	Director	Term In	Term Out	Citizenship	Background
1^st	Camille Gutt	6 May 1946	5 May 1951	Belgium	1) Politician 2) Economist 3) Lawyer 4) Economics Minister 5) Finance Minister
2^nd	Ivar Rooth	3 Aug 1951	3 Oct 1956	Sweden	1) Economist 2) Lawyer 3) Central Banker
3^rd	Per Jacobsson	21 Nov 1956	5 May 1963	Sweden	1) BIS 2) Economist 3) Lawyer 4) Academic 5) League of Nations
4^th	Pierre-Paul Schweitzer	1 Sep 1963	31 Aug 1973	France	1) Lawyer 2) Businessman 3) Civil Servant 4) Central Banker
5^th	Johan Witteveen	1 Sep 1973	18 Jun 1978	Netherlands	1) CPB 2) Politician 3) Economist 4) Academic 5) Finance Minister 6) Deputy Prime Minister
6^th	Jacques de Larosière	18 Jun 1978	15 Jan 1987	France	1) Businessman 2) Civil Servant 3) Central Banker
7^th	Michel Camdessus	16 Jan 1987	14 Feb 2000	France	1) Economist 2) Civil Servant 3) Central Banker
8^th	Horst Köhler	1 May 2000	4 Mar 2004	Germany	1) Politician 2) Economist 3) Civil Servant 4) EBRD 5) President
9^th	Rodrigo Rato	7 Jun 2004	31 Oct 2007	Spain	1) Politician 2) Businessman 3) Economics Minister 4) Finance Minister 5) Deputy Prime Minister
10^th	Dominique Strauss-Kahn	1 Nov 2007	18 May 2011	France	1) Politician 2) Economist 3) Lawyer 4) Businessman 5) Economics Minister 6) Finance Minister
11^th	Christine Lagarde	5 Jul 2011	12 Sep 2019	France	1) Politician 2) Lawyer 3) Finance Minister
12^th	Kristalina Georgieva	1 Oct 2019	~	Bulgaria	1) Politician 2) Economist

IMF First Deputy Managing Directors

The Managing Director (MD) is assisted by a First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD) who, by convention, has always been a citizen of the United States. Together, the Managing Director and his/her First Deputy lead the Senior Management of the IMF.

Term	Name	Term In	Term Out	Citizenship	Background
1^st	Andrew Overby	9 Feb 1949	24 Jan 1952	U.S.	1) Banker 2) Senior U.S. Treasury Official
2^nd	Merle Cochran	16 Mar 1953	31 Oct 1962	U.S.	U.S. Foreign Service Officer
3^rd	Frank Southard	1 Nov 1962	28 Feb 1974	U.S.	1) Economist 2) Civil Servant
4^th	William Dale	1 Mar 1974	31 May 1984	U.S.	Civil Servant
5^th	Richard Erb	1 Jun 1984	31 Aug 1994	U.S.	1) Economist 2) White House Official
6^th	Stanley Fischer	1 Sep 1994	31 Aug 2001	Israel + U.S.	1) Economist 2) Banker 3) Central Banker
7^th	Anne Kreuger	1 Sep 2001	31 Aug 2006	U.S.	Economist
8^th	John Lipsky	17 Jul 2006	11 Nov 2011	U.S.	Economist
9^th	David Lipton	1 Sep 2011	28 Feb 2020	U.S.	1) Economist 2) Senior U.S. Treasury Official
10^th	Geoffrey Okamoto	20 Mar 2020	20 Jan 2022	U.S.	1) Bank Consultant 2) Senior U.S. Treasury Official
11^th	Gita Gopinath	21 Jan 2022	~	U.S.	1) Chief Economist of IMF 2) Professor at Harvard University’s Economics Department

IMF Chief Economists

The Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund is also the economic counselor and director of the fund’s Research Department and is responsible for providing independent advice to the fund on its policy issues, integrating ideas of the research in the design of policies, conveying these ideas to the policymakers inside and outside the fund and managing all research done at IMF.

Term	Chief Economists	Term In	Term Out	Citizenship
1^st	Edward Bernstein	1946	1958	United States
2^nd	Jacques Polak	1958	1980	Netherlands
3^rd	William Hood	1980	1987	Canada
4^th	Jacob Frenkel	1987	1991	Israel
5^th	Michael Mussa	Aug 1991	29 Jun 2001	United States
6^th	Kenneth Rogoff	Aug 2001	Sep 2003	United States
7^th	Raghuram Rajan	Sep 2003	Jan 2007	India
8^th	Simon Johnson	Mar 2007	31 Aug 2008	United Kingdom United States
9^th	Olivier Blanchard	1 Sep 2008	8 Sep 2015	France
10^th	Maurice Obstfeld	8 Sep 2015	31 Dec 2018	United States
11^th	Gita Gopinath	1 Jan 2019	21 Jan 2022	United States
12^th	Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas	24 Jan 2022	~	France

Voting Power of IMF Members

Voting power in the International Monetary Fund is based on a quota system. Each member has a number of basic votes plus one additional vote for each Special Drawing Right (SDR) of 100,000 of a member country’s quota. Changes in the voting shares require approval by a super-majority of 85% of the voting power.

Rank	Country	Governor	Alternative	% of Votes
1	United States	Andy Baukol	Vacant	16.50
2	Japan	Shunichi Suzuki	Haruhiko Kuroda	6.14
3	China	Gang Yi	Yulu Chen	6.08
4	Germany	Joachim Nagel	Christian Lindner	5.31
5	France	Bruno Le Maire	François Villeroy de Galhau	4.03
6	United Kingdom	Rishi Sunak MP	Andrew Bailey	4.03
7	Italy	Daniele Franco	Ignazio Visco	3.02
8	India	Nirmala Sitharaman	Shaktikanta Das	2.63
9	Russia	Anton Siluanov	Elvira S. Nabiullina	2.59
10	Brazil	Paulo Guedes	Roberto Campos Neto	2.22
11	Canada	Chrystia Freeland	Tiff Macklem	2.22
12	Saudi Arabia	Mohammed Al-Jadaan	Fahad A. Almubarak	2.01
13	Spain	Nadia Calviño	Pablo Hernández de Cos	1.92
14	Mexico	Rogelio Eduardo Ramirez de la O	Victoria Rodríguez Ceja	1.80
15	Netherlands	Klaas Knot	Christiaan Rebergen	1.76
16	South Korea	Choo Kyung-ho	Rhee Chang-yong	1.73
17	Australia	Josh Frydenberg, M.P.	Steven Kennedy	1.33
18	Belgium	Pierre Wunsch	Vincent Van Peteghem	1.30
19	Switzerland	Thomas Jordan	Ueli Maurer	1.17
20	Turkey	Nureddin Nebati	Şahap Kavcıoğlu	0.95
21	Indonesia	Perry Warjiyo	Sri Mulyani Indrawati	0.95
22	Sweden	Stefan Ingves	Elin Eliasson	0.91
23	Poland	Mateusz Morawiecki	Marta Kightley	0.84
24	Austria	Robert Holzmann	Gottfried Haber	0.81
25	Singapore	Tharman Shanmugaratnam	Ravi Menon	0.80

Full Forms Related To IMF

No.	Acronyms	Full Form
1	CCRT	Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust
2	CRA	Contingent Reserve Arrangement
3	ECF	Extended Credit Facility
4	EBRD	European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
5	EFF	Extended Fund Facility
6	FAO	Food and Agriculture Organization
7	FCL	Flexible Credit Line
8	FDMD	First Deputy Managing Director
9	GDDS	General Data Dissemination System
10	GDP	Gross Domestic Product
11	IBRD	International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
12	IMF	International Monetary Fund
13	IMFC	International Monetary and Financial Committee
14	LDCs	Less Developed Countries
15	MD	Managing Director
16	MDG	Millennium Development Goals
17	ODI	Overseas Development Institute
18	OECD	Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
19	PLL	Precautionary and Liquidity Line
20	PRSPs	Poverty Reduction Strategic Papers
21	RBI	Reserve Bank of India
22	RCF	Rapid Credit Facility
23	RFI	Rapid Financing Instrument
24	SBA	Stand-By Arrangements
25	SCF	Standby Credit Facility
26	SDDS	Special Data Dissemination Standard
27	SDRs	Special Drawing Rights
28	UNDP	United Nations Development Program
29	UNICEF	United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
30	WTO	World Trade Organization