The Article IV Scanner has been launched, an online search tool designed to enable civil society, researchers and officials to search International Monetary Fund (IMF) surveillance documents.

In collaboration with Dr. Thomas Stubbs, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Royal Holloway, the Bretton Woods Project has launched the Article IV Scanner, an online search tool which enables users to search words or key phrases in IMF Article IV surveillance reports.

The IMF conducts bilateral surveillance through an ‘Article IV Consultation’. These consultations involve an annual IMF staff visit to each of its member countries, during which they discuss the country’s overall economic condition, its fiscal and monetary policies, and any perceived economic risks. The IMF then compiles a staff report with an evaluation and recommendations, otherwise known as the Article IV report.

Surveillance is one of the key ways in which the IMF influences global economic policy making, by providing macroeconomic policy advice to every country, every year. However, until now, the advice given through surveillance remained relatively unknown by the wider public. The Article IV Scanner aims to make IMF surveillance more transparent, accessible and open to critical perspectives, especially ahead of the IMF’s Comprehensive Surveillance Review -- consultations for which are expected to take place in Autumn of this year.

This tool is hosted by IMF Monitor, a hub for IMF data curated by Dr Stubbs, which also houses the first freely available, comprehensive and transparent database of IMF-mandated policy reforms ('conditionality').