Founded in 1944 during World War II at the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, US, the IMF was established to help stabilise the post-war global economy. Now based in Washington, DC, it has since grown from 44 founding members to 191 today and works closely with the United Nations and other international organisations to support global financial stability.
It does this by providing policy advice, short-term financial assistance and capacity development to countries and institutions.
Any country can join the IMF if approved by existing members and by paying a quota based on the size of its economy, with wealthier countries contributing more. This quota is used to set how much the country contributes, how much it can borrow and how much voting power it has. The amount of money owed to the IMF is typically expressed as Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), the IMF’s own unit of account based on a basket of five currencies – the US dollar, euro, pound sterling, the Chinese renminbi and the Japanese yen.
While SDRs are not a currency, countries can exchange them for the currencies mentioned above. As of October 15, one SDR was equivalent to $1.36.
The IMF currently has the highest-ever total credit outstanding. The chart below shows how much money has been owed to the IMF over the past 40 years. In total, 86 countries owe the IMF SDR 118.9 billion, roughly equivalent to $162bn. The three countries that owe the most make up almost half of the total, while the top 10 countries owe 73 percent.
The chart below shows the 86 countries which owe money to the IMF, broken down by region. Argentina owes the most to the IMF, with SDR 41.8 billion (about $57bn) in outstanding credit, followed by Ukraine with SDR 10.4 billion ($14bn) and Egypt with SDR 6.9 billion ($9bn). Argentina is the IMF’s largest borrower, with its debt exceeding the combined total of the following seven countries – Ukraine, Egypt, Pakistan, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Bangladesh.
In April, the IMF approved its 23rd programme to Argentina with a $20bn bailout programme to help prop up the economy. Argentina’s history with the IMF is marked by repeated borrowing – it is the recipient of the most bailouts in the history of the IMF. In 2018, the country secured a $57bn loan – the largest in IMF history – to address fiscal imbalances after facing a currency crisis and double-digit inflation.
In October 2025, the Trump administration announced a $20bn financial support package for Argentina, aimed at stabilising the country’s economy before its October 26 midterm elections. The package includes a $20bn currency swap with Argentina’s central bank, providing US dollars in exchange for pesos to bolster the nation’s foreign currency reserves.
Source: Here