Bloomberg View

Bloomberg View is the new opinion section of Bloomberg News. Each week, Bloomberg Businessweek will run select editorials committed to an ideology of transparency and tolerance, nonpartisanship and intellectual honesty, free markets and data-driven solutions to global problems

THE IMF'S ELECTORAL MATH DOESN'T ADD UP
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, now a formal candidate to become the International Monetary Fund's next chief, enjoys decisive support and may well get the post. The chances of any non-European vaulting ahead of her were always remote, given that IMF voting power is tilted heavily in Europe's favor. For the good of the Fund, the next IMF boss should pledge to eliminate this inequity.

To see what's wrong with the electoral math, consider Belgium and Brazil. Belgium is the world's 20th-largest economy, with a 1.86 percent voting share in the IMF. Brazil is a vastly larger and more populous nation, ranked in the world's top 10 economies, with triple Belgium's output. At the IMF, however, Brazil is the weakling, with just 1.72 percent of the vote. China, the world's second-largest economy, ranks sixth in IMF voting power behind the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, and Britain. The IMF has been gradually realigning voting shares since 2006, and China is due to rise to No. 3 in voting power next year. That still lags economic reality.