Basically, the purpose of the IMF was to (a) achieve the international advantages of the gold standard without subjecting nations to its internal disadvantages; and (b) achieve internal advantages of paper standard while avoiding its international disadvantages.

The main objectives of the Fund, as summarised in the Articles of Agreement, are as follows:

(i) To promote international monetary cooperation through a permanent institution that provides the machinery for consultation and collaboration on international monetary problems.

(ii) To facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to contribute thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment and real income and to the development of the productive resources of all members as primary objectives of economic policy.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(iii) To promote exchange stability, to maintain orderly exchange arrangements among members, and to avoid competitive exchange depreciations.

(iv) To assist in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments in respect to current transactions between members and in the elimination of foreign exchange restrictions which hamper the growth of world trade?

(v) To give confidence to members by the Fund’s resources available to them under adequate safeguards, thus providing them with opportunity to correct maladjustments in their balance of payments without resorting to measures destructive of national or international prosperity.

(vi) In accordance with the above, to shorten the duration and lesson the degree of disequilibrium in the international balance of payments of members.