International Monetary Fund (IMF)
An international organization operating within the UN, dealing with issues concerning the economic stability in the world. The fund was created in 1944 with headquarters in Washington. After the Second World War, there was a need for action to overcome the changes that have occurred in many war-torn countries, including creation of an international organization counteracting perturbations on the international currency market. Poland was one of the founding members of the Fund.
Currently the IMF has three main functions:
- A regulatory one - monitoring the currency restrictions applied by member states and observing exchange rate rules,
- A lending one - IMF provides financial assistance to indebted member states, which in return are obliged to make economic reforms and take other stabilizing measures,
- A consultative one - carried out by a number of consultancy services and cooperation between member countries.
Polish official statistics, especially Statistics Poland, as its main coordinator, is obliged to provide statistical information at many levels. One of them is transferring statistical data to specialized international agencies, such as IMF. For example, in 2017 data was sent concerning labour, payments, production, export/import, the average employment rate in the sector of enterprises, prices, goods and services, international trade.