From the archive: Is the IMF fit for purpose?

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  This is The Guardian.

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  Hi, this is Jamie Martin,

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  and I'm the author of Is the IMF Fit for Purpose, which was published in 2022.

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  So I decided to write this article at a very worrying moment,

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  just as we were emerging from the pandemic.

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  The war in Ukraine was raging, inflation was rising, and interest rates were on the way up.

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  In the United States, where I'm based, though also in Europe,

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  there was heated debate about how bad this inflationary surge was,

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  and alarm bells were ringing about growing debt distress around the world.

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  And this is a reason why we have international institutions, because their mandate is global.

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  They represent countries all over the world,

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  and their job ostensibly is to promote financial stability everywhere.

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  And this is above all the task of the International Monetary Fund, or the IMF.

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  So the question that animated my piece was whether the IMF was up to the task of providing a global financial safety net.

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  for the 2020s and beyond,

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  could it offer a lifeline to all the countries facing such severe economic pressures at the end of the pandemic?

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  In 2022, I felt, despite or maybe because of so many ongoing crises,

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  that there was a moment for real reconsideration of questions like these.

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  And there seemed to be some really meaningful efforts for reform then,

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  and ones that appeared to have some wind behind them.

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