Faculty / School

Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)

Department

Department of Economics

Was this content written or created while at IBA?

Yes

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

9-26-2012

Author Affiliation

  • Dr. Ishrat Husain is Dean and Director at Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Conference Name

The Future of the World Bank and the IMF

Conference Location

Williamstown, USA

Conference Dates

September 26, 2012

First Page

1

Last Page

8

Keywords

World Bank, Poverty Reduction, Policy Advice, Inequality, Climate Change, Financial System Stability

Abstract / Description

World economy has attained unprecedented level of growth since World War II. Growth rates attained in last quarter century have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Unleashing and energizing private enterprise under an open trading system and an enabling market friendly economic environment has made a difference. We also know by now what stifles growth – excessive taxation, red tape and bureaucratic corruption, inadequate infrastructure, high inflation and poorly educated labour force.

The World Bank kept adapting its role during the last five decades in response to the changing challenges. From a reconstruction agency responding to the needs of Europe it began to help the infrastructure needs of the newly independent developing countries through its project lending. Under President McNamara it turned its attention towards poverty reduction which continues to be its mission till today. The Bank along with the Fund played an important role in moving towards Structural Reforms in the 1980s and reshaped the policy advice embracing many of the elements of the so called Washington Consensus – openness to trade, Macroeconomic Stability, Fiscal discipline, Central bank independence. China and East Asian experience made some shift in the emphasis towards Mixed, pragmatic strategies particularly extensive reforms of governance and attention to human development. In more recent period the World Bank was making a conscious attempt to move in the direction of becoming a Knowledge Bank.

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