The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington said it would increase its disclosures in order to remain relevant in a fast changing global economy.

A statement from the Fund’s headquarters in Washington  said that the multilateral institution had been on the spotlight since the start of the global financial crisis, with a challenge to find the right architecture for a post-crisis world economy.

“Greater transparency in the IMF’s policies and decisions makes it more accountable to the people and governments at the centre of its work, the organisation concluded after a policy review.

The global economic crisis has brought the IMF’s policy advice and analysis into the broader public debate, and this has meant both  increased demand for information about the Fund’s work and increased scrutiny of the organisation’s assessments and recommendations, the statement said.

The IMF was created to ensure financial and exchange stability across the globe in 1948, with about 186 countries registered with the organisation.

“After 10 years of increasing the number and variety of documents it publishes, as part of its review of the Fund’s Transparency Policy on December 17, 2009, the IMF’s Executive Board renewed its commitment to transparency on a broad scale, and changed the focus of why information should be disclosed to why not?, the statement added.

The statement said the maintenance of the principle of publication of documents relating to member countries would be subject to the consent of the member.

“Most country reports produced by IMF staff are now published, with 88 per cent of member countries reports publicly available, the statement said. The reports, according to the statement, include requests for  funding as well as the annual reviews of member countries’ economic health, commonly known as Article IV reports.

To realise the objective on disclosure, the statement quoted the Executive Board of the Fund as saying it would increase incentives on publication of documents, unless a member country objects. The statement said the new position would be a shift from the initial position of seeking explicit permission to publish, which was required until the review.

“Extending the scope of documents that the country authorities will be encouraged to publish to include reports on the health of a country==s financial sector and its compliance with international codes and standards Establishing an expectation, in cases involving fund lending, that the country authorities would indicate intent to publish before the relevant Executive Board meeting

“Extending presumed publication to all policy documents, including papers relating to the Fund=s income, financing, or budget, unless these involve market-sensitive information,== the statement said.

The statement said that interests in the Fund=s archives had also increased in recent years, and, together with other measures to enhance the IMF=s accountability, the Board decided to shorten the wait for archived documents to be made available to the public. According to the statement, the Board said it would reduce lag time for public access to Board papers from 5 to 3 years, Board minutes from 10 to 5 years and enable web posting of selected digitised, archived materials.

The statement said the Fund would also ensure a general rule that documents classified as “Strictly Confidential==== would be declassified when they otherwise would become available under the time lag. The changes, approved by the Executive Board, according to the