Economist Daily Chart: IMF Influence - Light Weight BRICS

Today from The Economist's Daily Chart series:

How IMF voting shares compare with global economic heft

Many argue that IMF vote-shares (and the amounts countries are required to put into the fund's kitty) should reflect countries' relative economic heft. At the moment, however, that is far from being the case. Taken together, the economies of the European Union countries amount to just under 24% of the global economy. The economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa together make up about 21% of world GDP. But the European countries have 32% of the votes in the IMF, while the BRICS have 11%. No wonder the BRICS' representatives to the fund issued a rare joint statement deploring Europe's lock on the top job at the IMF, which is made possible in part by the fact that Europe and America between them have nearly 50%of the votes in the IMF's board. Proportionately, sub-Saharan Africa, (excluding South Africa) is the most over-represented region, with 3.1% of the vote but a mere 1.35% of the world economy.

An important update to the debate regarding the distribution of influence in global economic governance... Could be useful!

Profile: IMF and World Bank (BBC News)

Very helpfully, the BBC News website has put together a profile page for the two most important institutions responsible for economic governance and development on a global basis: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

This concise but useful guide provides an overview of the two bodies, a brief fact sheet, a profile of the institutions' leaders and an insight into issues arising from their work. The BBC profile is particularly useful in providing examples of the latter, both positive and critical. As you hopefully know, the policies and actions of both institutions have provoked protests world-wide, particularly on the occasion of IMF-World Bank summits.

Take a look: This is a convenient source for the revision of notes generated for these key, high profile institutions. The right sidebar also provides links to recent and current (!) news stories in which these examples can be explored in greater detail by motivated students.