Official Says IMF Is Ready for Soviet Membership Bid

In a statement that is likely to encourage the Soviet Union to move more rapidly toward a market system, a senior official of the International Monetary Fund said his institution is prepared to consider a future bid from the Soviet Union to join the pillar of the West’s global financial system.

“I don’t see any major obstacles to the Soviet Union joining the institution,” the official, speaking on condition that he not be identified, told reporters Tuesday.

But the Soviets, who are sending a special delegation to next week’s annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank for the first time, still must overcome some important hurdles. Formal Soviet membership is at least a year away, one U.S. official indicated, because the Soviet Union still has not made significant strides toward adopting a system of free markets and private property.

“The (Bush) Administration has not changed its policy toward the Soviet Union,” a Treasury official said. “They still have a long way to go toward major economic reform.”

But even though the Soviet Union is not moving toward full membership this year, it is now clear that Washington and the international economic institutions will soon be facing the question of Soviet entry. Such membership would allow the Soviet Union to borrow from the IMF and the World Bank and would help support the flow of private capital to the Soviets.

The Soviet Union is in the midst of an intense political debate over an economic plan advocated by Boris N. Yeltsin, the populist president of the Russian Republic, to break sharply from the nation’s Communist system of centralized control. The proposal, which calls for adoption of a host of Western economic practices within 500 days, has not yet been fully embraced by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

At the same time, the IMF, along with the World Bank and other international economic institutions, is engaged in a wide-ranging study of the Soviet economy. Administration officials do not think the issue of Soviet membership is likely to move to the front burner until after the study is completed in December.