India, which chairs the G20 this year, has sought a largely neutral stance on the war, generally declining to blame Russia for the invasion Moscow launched in February last year, urging a diplomatic solution and sharply boosting its purchases of Russian oil even as Western nations seek to squeeze Moscow.
Yellen said she would continue to push hard at the G20 meeting, in Gandhinagar in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat, for “full and timely participation of all bilateral official creditors on pending debt restructurings”.
She said she discussed Zambia’s restructuring with her Chinese counterparts and, although it took too long to negotiate, differences were overcome.
“We should apply the common principles we agreed to in Zambia’s case in other cases – rather than starting at zero every time. And we must go faster,” Yellen said, adding she hoped debt treatments for Sri Lanka and Ghana could be finalised quickly so the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could move forward with initial loan programme reviews this fall.
She said a debt restructuring “user guide” was needed for borrowing countries and other stakeholders to provide clarity about the process.
Yellen said the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth trust, which provides zero-interest loans to the world’s poorest countries, needed to be put on sounder financial footing. The US Treasury is ready to assist the IMF to consider options for this, including using internal fund resources, she said.
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