Which 1944 agreement created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to stabilize the postwar economy?

The 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to stabilize the postwar economy.

Delegates from 44 Allied nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944. They designed a monetary system based on fixed exchange rates, with most currencies linked to the U.S. dollar and the dollar convertible into gold for official holders.

The agreement’s institutions were intended to prevent competitive devaluations, balance-of-payments crises, and the protectionist instability associated with the Great Depression. The International Monetary Fund would provide temporary financial assistance, while the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, later part of the World Bank Group, would support reconstruction and development.

The original fixed-rate system ended in the early 1970s when the United States suspended dollar convertibility into gold. The institutions created at Bretton Woods nevertheless remain central to international economic policy.