The International Monetary Fund is a specialised agency within the United Nations, created in 1945 on the basis of the Bretton Woods agreement, with the purpose to ensure the stability of the international monetary and financial system and the international payments system. The IMF headquarters is in Washington, D.C., and it has 190 member countries (the Principality of Andorra became a member of the IMF on October 16, 2020).

The Republic of Croatia joined the IMF on 14 December 1992 on the basis of the succession of membership of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), acquiring the right to the members' quota in the amount of 28.49% of the former SFRY quota. Today, the quota of the Republic of Croatia stands at SDR 717.4 million (Special Drawing Rights) representing 0.15% of the total IMF quota, and 0.17% of the total voting power in the IMF.

The Law on Accepting Membership of the Republic of Croatia in the International Monetary Fund and other International Financial Organisations on the Basis of Succession defines the Croatian National Bank (CNB) as the financial institution that performs all operations and transactions on behalf of the Republic of Croatia under Article V, Section 1 of the Articles of Agreement of the IMF. The Governor of the CNB is the Governor for the Republic of Croatia at the IMF, and Deputy Governor of the CNB is the Alternate Governor for Croatia at the IMF.

IMF's governing bodies include the Board of Governors, the Executive Board and the Managing Director. Member countries exercise their interests in the IMF through the Executive Board within which elective groups, the so-called constituencies, are formed.

The Republic of Croatia is a member of constituency headed by Dutch and Belgian Executive Directors who alternate over four-year periods. This constituency comprises 16 countries (Andorra, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Croatia, Israel, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Romania and Ukraine) and accounts for 5.47% of the total voting power in the IMF. In the current office, the Dutch representative is the Executive Director of this constituency.

Within the IMF surveillance activity, the IMF staff make regular annual visits to the Republic of Croatia for the purpose of consultations under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement. On that occasion, they hold meetings with representatives of government bodies and the private sector, and get a detailed insight into the latest economic developments and policies in the Republic of Croatia. Article IV consultations are concluded after the Executive Board's discussion on the Staff Report. Documents related to consultations are published on the IMF's website and translated into Croatian on the CNB's website.

Regular statistical reporting and the exchange of information based on which the IMF prepares its publications, such as the International Financial Statistics, World Economic Outlook, Global Financial Stability Report and others, are also an integral part of the IMF surveillance activity, as well as the Financial Stability Assessment Program (FSAP), established in 1999. This joint project by the IMF and the World Bank was launched for the purpose of an in-depth assessment of a member country's financial sector. The Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) is the responsibility of the IMF, and a financial development assessment is the responsibility of the World Bank. To date, two assessments of the financial sector of the Republic of Croatia have been carried out: one in 2002 and another in 2008.

As to the IMF's financial activity, the latest arrangement the Republic of Croatia had with the IMF ended in 2006. In the course of the 1990s, the Republic of Croatia used three IMF financial arrangements: Stand-by Arrangement (1994), Systemic Transformation Facility (1994) and Extended Fund Facility (1997). During the following decade, the Republic of Croatia also used three IMF financial arrangements, but unlike the previous ones, there were no fund withdrawals, and the arrangements were used exclusively as precautionary ones. These stand-by arrangements were concluded in 2001, 2003 and 2004.