Why did the Bretton Woods Institution begin to shift its attention more towards developing countries?

  • The IMF and the World Bank were designed to meet the financial needs of the industrial countries.
  • They were not equipped to cope with the challenge of poverty and lack of development in the former colonies.
  • But as Europe and Japan rapidly rebuilt their economies, they grew less dependent on the IMF and the World Bank.
  • Thus from the late 1950s, the Bretton Woods Institution began to shift its attention more towards developing countries.