IPFS News Link • Economy - Economics USA
The IMF and the World Bank: How Do They Differ?
• www.imf.org
If you have difficulty distinguishing the World Bank from the International Monetary
Fund, you are not alone. Most people have only the vaguest idea of what these institutions do,
and very few people indeed could, if pressed on the point, say why and how they differ. Even
John Maynard Keynes, a founding father of the two institutions and considered by many the
most brilliant economist of the twentieth century, admitted at the inaugural meeting of the
International Monetary Fund that he was confused by the names: he thought the Fund should
be called a bank, and the Bank should be called a fund. Confusion has reigned ever since.