U.S., WASHINGTON, April 19. IMF members have agreed on critical importance of rebuilding fiscal policy buffers, said the Managing Director of IMF Kristalina Georgieva during a briefing on the International Monetary and Financial Committee held as part of the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, Trend reports.
“What we want is a world where growth is stronger, living standards are higher and low income countries are not falling behind, and a world that is more resilient to the shocks that will continue to come. Our Spring Meetings’ focus is on what exactly the IMF can be empowered to do for this world.
I am very pleased with the progress we have achieved in key areas. First, we agreed on policy priorities. In addition to the need to finish the job on inflation, we agreed on the critical importance of rebuilding fiscal policy buffers, reviving medium-term growth prospects and renewing our commitment to support the government machine,” she said.
Second, Georgieva noted that the IMFC reinforces funds play important role in our low income countries, which have been hardest hit by recent shocks.
“We have increased our concessional financing by fivefold since the pandemic with 57 countries benefiting and we are strongly committed to continue this support and agreed to explore all options to fund our Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust including through use of internal resources,” she said.
The managing director pointed out that it is necessary to address the challenge of rising debt, public debt and debt service are up across the world.
“But for some countries, this issue is particularly severe and pressive. To assist countries in that distress, we held another productive meeting of the global sovereign debt roundtable in partnership with the World Bank and with the G20 chairmanship of the Brazil presidency,” she added.
The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group kicked off on April 15.
The main ministerial meetings and events will take place April 17-19 with other events and activities taking place during the week, April 15-20.
At the heart of the gathering are meetings of the joint Development Committee and the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee, which discuss progress on the work of the World Bank Group and the IMF.
The Spring Meetings bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness.