The political economy of IMF surveillance

Alongside the elaboration of specific standards, such as the SDDS or the GDDS, the IMF is also engaged, with the World Bank, in monitoring countries' compliance with these and other standards through the reports on the observance of standards and codes (ROSCs) at the request of a member country. [...] Since the inception of the SDDS, the Board has reviewed the status of the initiative - mainly focusing on how many members have subscribed and how many more could subscribe - at regular intervals of about two years, while every quarter the staff compiles an update on the subscribers to the Initiative that is regularly circulated to the Board. [...] Furthermore, standards and codes constitute part of the policy dialogue with the authorities in the context of bilateral surveillance missions and, as a result, the Article IV staff papers prepared for the Board report details on the extent to which the member has subscribed to - and has requested a ROSC in - the full spectrum of the current standards. [...] From the perspective of the IMF itself (and of the World Bank), ROSCs have played an increasingly important role in informing the work of the institution by providing, for instance, the main criterion for prioritizing the provision of its free, but limited, technical assistance. [...] Preliminary drafts of the WEO chapters 38 On the role of the Executive Board in the governance of the IMF see Ngaire Woods and Domenico Lombardi, "Uneven Patterns of Governance: How Developing Countries are Represented in the IMF," Review of International Political Economy, vol.