Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Remarks at Annual Meeting of the International Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

September 28, 1959

Mr. Chairman, Governors, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a real privilege and pleasure to extend again to the Governors of the International Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the International Finance Corporation a hearty welcome from the Government and from the people of the United States. We are honored by your presence in our midst and we anticipate fruitful results from your deliberations here this week.

We in the United States are fully aware that what happens in our economy can have significant effects on the well-being of the rest of the world, and that many other countries attach considerable importance to developments in our economic situation.

Happily, our economy today, despite the increasingly heavy impact of the interruption in steel production, is in a healthy condition. In recent visits abroad I could see at first hand the heartwarming evidences of a remarkable recovery and expansion in a number of European economies. By the same token, you will see here that the United States economy has long since completed its recovery from the 1957-58 recession, and is well advanced into a new period of growth. Although we have our problems, the recent growth of our economy has been of an orderly and balanced sort, and we confidently expect this trend to extend at a good rate into the future. We are gratified also that while recovery was being resumed, the overall level of consumer prices has been relatively stable and that a balanced Federal budget is in prospect for the present fiscal year. These are significant signs of the progress that can be made, if we pursue the right policies, in strengthening the financial bases of our economy and achieving inflation-free economic growth.

But the struggle to achieve these results is never over. We must use all of our forces, especially in fiscal and financial matters, to help keep the American economy sound and to avoid inflation. The same must be done, indeed, in all the world's economies. This is the one sure way to achieve truly dependable advances in human welfare.

It was only 15 years ago that many of the countries represented here today pledged themselves to the creation of cooperative international institutions to deal with basic international financial and economic problems. The result was the establishment of the International Bank and the Monetary Fund, the records of which have been impressive ones. The action recently taken by our governments to increase the resources of these institutions showed the great confidence there is in them and it should enable them to operate even more effectively in the future than in the past. Three years ago, the International Finance Corporation was added to this family of related international financial institutions to assist in financing productive private enterprise.

We are all aware of the general desire throughout the world for economic development and the need for international capital investment. While development is of course a natural and critical concern of the less-developed countries, it is important to all others as well. The improved economic position of the industrialized countries provides the means whereby they can better do their part in assisting development elsewhere, both directly, and through their participation in international institutions.

Clearly, by such actions, there will result a stronger and more stable free world, to the material benefit of every participating nation, both the helper and the helped.

It is recognized, however, that there are many development projects which, though economically sound, cannot be financed by existing international institutions. To meet this situation, the United States Governor of the Bank has proposed the creation of an International Development Association as an affiliate of the Bank. It is our belief that this new agency must be closely integrated with the Bank. Thus there will be assured the wise expenditure of its funds and the effective coordination of its activities with other institutions. In our view no other mechanism can perform this task for the free world as well as would the proposed IDA.

I congratulate the Bank, the Fund, and the IFC on their achievements and express my hope for an increasingly significant contribution on their part to the well-being of the world economy. To you, as the Governors of these institutions, falls the task of wisely directing policies toward the realization of these common and noble goals.

I express my complete confidence in your readiness and in your ability so to do. Thank you very much indeed.

Note: The President spoke at the Sheraton-Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. His opening words "Mr. Chairman" referred to Ambassador Fernando Berckemeyer of Peru.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at Annual Meeting of the International Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234360

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