The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Saturday that there are some differences among G20 countries regarding debt restructuring for struggling economies and that outlawing private cryptocurrencies should be a possibility.
In the midst of an economic slowdown brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India’s South Asian neighbors Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are requesting urgent IMF funding as they assume the G20 presidency.
As calls for lenders to take a significant haircut, or accept losses on loans, increase, China, the largest bilateral creditor in the world, urged the group of major economies on Friday to conduct a fair, objective, and thorough analysis of the causes of the global debt crisis.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva addressed reporters after co-chairing the roundtable with Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. “On debt restructuring, while there are still some disagreements, we now have the global sovereign debt roundtable with consideration of all public and private creditors.”
“We just finished a session in which it was clear that there is a commitment to bridge differences for the benefit of countries.”
There were no “deliverables” from the discussion, which was primarily organizational, according to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Around the time of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in April, additional talks of the panel—which includes significant bilateral creditors such as China, India, and the G7 countries, as well as several debtor countries—are planned.
We definitely agreed that this is a helpful venue, Yellen said in an interview with Reuters. “We are eager to take part in it.”
