IMF needs reforms to meet new challenges

As a significant multilateral organization, the International Monetary Fund has played an effective role in promoting economic globalization. To begin with, the IMF has helped advance globalization and international trade. It is committed to boosting and better balancing global trade, while helping IMF member states establish a multilateral payment system with the aim of removing the foreign exchange limits that impede the development of global trade.

In particular, the IMF has opposed trade protectionism since the China-US trade conflict intensified, and warned that the rise of protectionism is harmful to global economic growth. In fact, Christine Lagarde, the outgoing managing director of the IMF, called on countries to make efforts to build an open and rule-based multilateral trading system.

The IMF has facilitated the orderly flow of state-owned capital, while encouraging member states, especially developing countries, to promote capital account openness. But after the 2008 global financial crisis, the IMF's attitude toward capital flow has changed; it has begun focusing more on management of capital flow.