The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants, technical assistance, and policy advice to developing countries (i.e., low-income and middle-income countries). The name actually refers to two organizations that share leadership and staff: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and its concessional lending arm, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Led by the United States and United Kingdom, a multinational group of governments created the World Bank in 1944 to create an economic architecture to help reconstruct and develop European countries devastated by World War II. Its goal quickly expanded to providing support to non-European countries, and its current goal is to eradicate poverty worldwide. It is one of five international organizations in the World Bank Group, is a ...

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