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Major issues now before IMF

WASHINGTON: The successor to International Monetary Fund managing director Michel Camdessus will confront an uncertain relationship with Russia as well as several internal reform initiatives.

Camdessus is to retire on Monday after 13 years in the top post and will be temporarily replaced by his deputy, Stanley Fischer. A permanent successor will be named by the Fund's 24-seat executive board, representing the IMF's 182 member countries.

The following is a list of the principal near-term issues before the Fund:

Russia: IMF credits to Russia have been suspended since September on grounds that Russian authorities have yet to fully implement key components of an IMF-backed economic programme.

Despite missions by Fund experts to Moscow and consultations with Russian authorities, the IMF is not fully satisfied with the government's application of structural reform and its macro-economic targets.

Russia is currently awaiting a credit installment of 640 million dollars. While some analysts foresee a resumption in aid in early April after the March 26 presidential election, most observers are not so optimistic.

TRANSPARENCY: Pressed by Congress to become more open, the IMF under Camdessus has begun publishing its evaluations of member nation economies. To date some 50 countries have authorised the Fund to make public its assessment of their economic programmes.

A study of IMF's financial surveillance role is also under way and should lead to reforms in the Fund's operating procedures.

THE ROLE OF THE IMF: The United States is pressing for the IMF to do less long-term financing and - with the exception of heavily indebted poor countries - to restrict its intervention in member economies to emergency situations.

The IMF executive board is also debating changes to the various credit facilities provided by the Fund.

CHANGES TO THE IMF STEERING COMMITTEE: Camdessus lobbied for a transformation of the IMF policy-setting body, the International Financial and Monetary Committee, to make it more accountable to member states. But not all members agree that the committee should be given beefed up decision-making authority.

DEBT RELIFE: An initiative to ease the debt burden carried by the world's most impoverised countries, launched by the IMF and the World Bank in 1996, had initially been criticised for being too slow to make relief a reality. But thanks to a decision last year by industrialised nations, the effort has been expanded and the pace accelerated.

In exchange for an easing in their external debt, countries must agree to reform their economies and make commitments to alleviate poverty. The goal now is to see that about 25 of 33 of the world's poorest nations become eligible for relief by the end of 2000.-AFP