(Washington) The world economy has shown itself to be “more solid” than envisaged six months ago and the “worst macroeconomic scenarios have not materialized”, welcomed Friday the president of one of the main committees of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Compared to the situation we envisaged in the fall, the global economy has been stronger and the worst macroeconomic scenarios have not materialized,” said Nadia Calvino, Spain’s deputy prime minister and chair of the committee. IMFC, responsible for advising the IMF on monetary and financial issues, during a press conference.
Mme Calvino also insisted on the “rapid and decisive response of the authorities everywhere in the world in order to reassure the financial markets” after the bankruptcy of several American regional banks. But “authorities and financial institutions must remain vigilant” to avoid any risk of deterioration, she added.
The Deputy Prime Minister more broadly underlined the “consensus” between the Member States on the “essential subjects”, in particular the restructuring of the debt, the increase in the financing capacities of the IMF, in particular for emerging countries and low incomes subject to global warming.
However, the committee could not agree on issuing a joint communiqué due to an inability to agree on how to present the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
And in fact, the consensus does not seem so clear on other subjects, in particular concerning the restructuring of the debt of countries in crisis.
Thursday, the launch of negotiations between bilateral creditors and the Sri Lankan government for the restructuring of the debt of the Indian Ocean island brought together all the main creditors, with the notable exception of China.
The co-chairs of this negotiating group, Japan, India and France, insisted that the latter remained open to all creditors, implicitly inviting China to join them.
On Friday, a statement from the Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBC), Yi Gang, insisted on the need for “multilateral development banks to make their contribution to the restructuring of the debt” of the countries in difficulty, ” in particular by providing sufficient subsidies”.
A stance that echoes several comments from experts pointing out that China wants the IMF and World Bank to also take a haircut on their loans to countries facing debt crises before making commitments itself. accurate.
The negotiations concerning the commitments of the creditors of several countries, in particular Ghana, Zambia or Ethiopia, are still in progress and do not allow these countries to benefit from the aid plan already negotiated with the IMF, which cannot act without having obtained the assurances expected from the bilateral creditors.