IMF-WB meeting: FM Sitharaman, Gita Gopinath discuss debt vulnerabilities

FM Sitharaman is leading a high-powered Indian delegation to attend the annual spring meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.

“Union Finance Minister Smt.@nsitharaman met with Ms.@GitaGopinath, FDMD, International Monetary Fund @IMFNews, on the sidelines of the IMF-WB #SpringMeetings 2023 in Washington DC, today,” the finance ministry tweeted.

She congratulated Gopinath for accelerating India’s work on the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable along with the World Bank and reiterated India’s commitment to foster efforts to address growing debt vulnerabilities, the finance ministry said in a tweet after the meeting.

During the meeting, Sitharaman noted IMF’s concerns on key downside risks to the economy including financial sector stress, rising real interest rates, elevated debt, inflation, geo-political fragmentation, and faltering growth in China, as highlighted in World Economic Outlook World Economy Outlook.

Gopinath also congratulated the finance minister on the fruitful discussions that translated the February consensus on the need for a globally coordinated policy response on Crypto Assets into an agreed set of guiding principles and an action plan on crypto assets, the ministry said.

Sitharaman acknowledged IMF’s support to the G20 Presidency of India in the form of inputs towards developing evidence-based policy guidance.

Earlier, she also met with her Saudi Arabian counterpart, Mohammed Aljadaan, to discuss the global debt crisis and the strengthening of multilateral development banks.

The finance ministry noted that they discussed global inflation issues, including spillover effects of measures taken, on the growth prospects of developing and low-income countries, besides the urgent need to tackle increasing global debt distress and improving the implementation of the Common Framework.