ANDORRA REGION JOINS IMF AS ITS 190TH MEMBER

ANDORRA REGION  JOINS IMF AS ITS 190TH MEMBER

Context

The Principality of Andorra joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

About Andorra

• It is a sovereign landlocked microstate on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south.
• It is the largest microstate in Europe.
• With an area of 181 square miles, Andorra is about two-thirds the size of the island city-state of Singapore.
• It is the largest among the six European microstates, followed by Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City.

About The International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• It is an international organization that was initiated in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference and formally created in 1945 by 29 member countries.
• The IMF's stated goal was to assist in the reconstruction of the world’s international payment system post–World War II.
• Countries contribute money to a pool through a IMF quota system from which countries with payment imbalances can borrow funds temporarily.
• Through this activity and others such as surveillance of its members' economies and the demand for self-correcting policies, the IMF works to improve the economies of its member countries.
• The organization's stated objectives are to promote international economic cooperation, international trade, employment, and exchange rate stability, including by making financial resources available to member countries to meet balance of payments needs.
• It provides policy advice and financing to members in economic difficulties and also works with developing nations to help them achieve macroeconomic stability and reduce poverty.
• In addition, the IMF negotiates conditions on lending and loans under their policy of conditionality, which was established in the 1950s.