International Monetary Fund Annual Report 1974

This paper reviews key findings of the IMF's Annual Report for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1974. The report highlights that in mid-1974, the world economy was in the throes of a virulent and widespread inflation, a deceleration of economic growth in reaction to the preceding high rate of expansion, and a massive disequilibrium in international payments. The average annual rate of inflation in industrial countries, already 7 percent in 1973, reached 12 percent (in terms of gross national product deflators) in the first half of 1974.