The audited consolidated financial statements of the International Monetary Fund as of April 30, 2019 and 2018

This issue of Annual Report discusses that the global economy is at a delicate moment. The expansion of early 2018 has lost momentum, in large part in response to rising trade tensions. There are threats from rising financial vulnerabilities and geopolitical uncertainties. These challenges call for policymakers to avoid missteps and to take the right policy steps: at home, across borders, and globally. In addition to several major reviews looking at IMF conditionality, economic and financial surveillance, and lending facilities, the management has deepened its analysis on trade spillovers and financial stability and are revamping frameworks for debt sustainability assessment in low-income and market access countries. Building on earlier research that showed how trade can boost incomes and living standards by enabling the flow of technology across countries, the October 2018 World Economic Outlook provided illustrative scenarios of the potential impact of escalating trade tensions between the United States and China.

The Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions has been published by the IMF since 1950. It draws on information available to the IMF from a number of sources, including that provided in the course of official staff visits to member countries, and has been prepared in close consultation with national authorities.

International Monetary Fund Annual Report 2019.

A recovery is underway, but the economic fallout from the global pandemic could be with us for years to come. With the crisis exacerbating prepandemic vulnerabilities, country prospects are diverging. Nearly half of emerging market and developing economies and some middle-income countries are now at risk of falling further behind, undoing much of the progress made toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Global growth is forecast at 3.0 percent for 2019, its lowest level since 2008–09 and a 0.3 percentage point downgrade from the April 2019 World Economic Outlook.

The audited consolidated financial statements of the International Monetary Fund as of April 30, 2020 and 2019