World Bank, IMF mark 60th anniversary

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today mark the 60th anniversary of their founding at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in July 1944 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

"The IMF focuses on the stability of the international financial system, while the World Bank concentrates on long-term economic development and poverty reduction," the institutions' heads, IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato y Gigaredo, and World Bank President James Wolfensohn, say in a joint statement.

Their statement introduces an online anniversary exhibition of materials culled from their archives and called "Celebrating the Bretton Woods Institutions."

Battered by depressions and recessions after World War I, both the United Kingdom and the United States began to discuss the post-World War II international financial system soon after the new war broke out. Pre-eminent in the discussions were John Maynard Keynes from the United Kingdom and Harry Dexter White from the United States, according to exhibition notes.

"Most of White's plan was incorporated into the final acts adopted at Bretton Woods. The IMF was given the role of promoting global economic growth through international trade and financial stability," they say. Keynes supervised the drafting of the World Bank's articles.

The first meeting of the two Boards of Governors took place at the General Oglethorpe Hotel in Savannah, Georgia, in the United States, in March 1946 and the first loan of $250 million - half of the amount requested - went to France in May 1947 for post-World War II reconstruction.

"From Bretton Woods came a framework for economic cooperation and development that has stood the test of time. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group continue to work for a strong and prosperous global economy that benefits all the world's citizens," the exhibition says.