The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to slash staff numbers by up to 15 per cent in the biggest round of job cuts since it was set up in 1945, as the global lender struggles to avoid a financial crisis.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister who became managing director of the IMF last month, said that between 300 and 400 staff could lose their jobs under a plan aimed at making budget savings of $100 million (£49 million).

The IMF chiefly raises money from acting as lender of last resort to nations facing financial difficulties. However, the Fund’s own finances have come under pressure in recent years as economic stability, a commodity boom and huge productivity gains in emerging markets have allowed many poor countries to repay debts early.

The IMF ran a deficit of $110 million in the last financial year. Recently it was told by Standard & Poors, the credit rating agency, that such losses could double if it did not address its operations. S&P said that the IMF was burning up its cash reserves so quickly that it risks hindering its ability to help needy countries.

With a headcount of 2,600, the IMF has far less staff than the World Bank, its sister institution, which has 10,000 employees, 3,000 of whom work in offices in the developing world.

Mr Strauss-Kahn said that the overhaul of staff, which would go well beyond any previous job-cutting programme, was essential to refocus the IMF’s operations and to his bid to introduce a new and stronger income model for the body.

He said: “This institution works well, with dedicated people and very high-level staff, but it is a factory to produce paper.”

Mr Strauss-Kahn said that he planned to cut the number of economists - which stands at 1,269 – and replace them with staff with experience of financial markets.

He added that he would sell 400 of the IMF’s massive 3,217 tonnes of gold to create an endowment whose earnings would boost the Fund’s income. The Fund’s stockpile is worth around $9 billion.

He called for the United States and other large shareholders to provide financial support for his plans. He said: “All this is possibly only if . . . I have the commitment by different governments [to boost IMF income].”

Discussing the world economy, he said that the fall in the dollar was “in the right direction” but that it had left the euro “probably on the strong side”. He backed calls for China to let its currency appreciate, but said that by itself that would not be enough to remove “global imbalances” in the economy.

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