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[1/2] International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva addresses the media on the fourth day of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, in Marrakech, Morocco, October 12, 2023. "So that is to my mind the number one priority for this COP, is to recognise that business as usual has to be dropped." Several countries were also considering using their 2021 SDR allocation on a bilateral basis alongside IMF programmes, she added. While the current average price was now around $5 a ton, "clearly there is a long, long, long way to go", she said, citing a preference for carbon taxes but openness to trading systems, as seen in Europe, or U.S.-style standards and rebates. This is ongoing work at the fund," she said, citing ongoing talks with the World Bank on how it would work.

Persons: Kristalina Georgieva, Susana Vera, Georgieva, it's, Andrea Shalal, Marc Jones, David Lawder, Alex Richardson Organizations: Monetary Fund, IMF, World Bank, REUTERS, International Monetary Fund, Reuters, Growth Trust, Sustainability Trust, African Development Bank, Inter, American Development Bank, Thomson Locations: Marrakech, Morocco, Dubai, Paris, Europe

☆ US Treasury's Yellen Pledges Support for Morocco's Quake Recovery Efforts
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Oct. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

By David LawderMARRAKECH, Morocco (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday said her government, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)and the World Bank would support Morocco's earthquake rebuilding efforts, praising the country's resilience in hosting the institutions' annual meetings this week. "We stand ready to help in any way that is helpful as you go about the rebuilding process," Yellen told reporters in Marrakech, reading handwritten remarks. She did not specify what assistance would be offered but added that support for Morocco would be discussed at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Marrakech. Yellen toured the Bin Youssef high school in Marrakech, which was quick to take on students displaced from damaged schools in villages hit by the Sept. 8 earthquake. Morocco also has a $5 billion IMF flexible credit line that it can draw on.

Persons: David Lawder, Janet Yellen, Yellen, Youssef, Deborah Kyvrikosaios Organizations: . Treasury, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, IMF, Sustainability Trust Locations: David Lawder MARRAKECH, Morocco, Marrakech, Moroccan

☆ IMF, World Bank to decide Monday on October meetings in earthquake-hit Morocco
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Questions have swirled over whether the IMF and World Bank would still hold their annual meetings in Morocco's tourist hub of Marrakech since a devastating, 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the High Atlas Mountains, killing more than 2,900 people. Marrakech, 45 miles (72 km) from the quake's epicenter, suffered some damage in its ancient Medina quarter, but Moroccan officials have pressed the IMF and World Bank to proceed with the gathering, which would bring some 10,000-15,000 to the city. "The Moroccan authorities are fully committed to the meetings," Georgieva said in her first public comments on the matter since the disaster. In describing discussions with Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, Georgieva expressed concern that the IMF and World Bank "don't want to be a burden" to the country as it deals with recovery efforts. Morocco also has access to a $5 billion flexible creditline from the IMF, approved in April, that is aimed at strengthening the countries' crisis prevention capabilities.

Persons: Kristalina Georgieva, William Ruto, Emmanuel Macron, Janet Yellen, Ajay Banga, Georgieva, Aziz Akhannouch, Andrea Shalal, David Lawder, Chris Reese, Diane Craft Organizations: International Monetary Fund, Treasury, World Bank, New Global Financial, Monetary Fund, Bank, Reuters, IMF, Sustainability Trust, Moroccan, World, IMF's, Thomson Locations: Kenya, U.S, Paris, WASHINGTON, Morocco, Marrakech, Medina

☆ IMF, World Bank to step up cooperation on climate, debt, digital transition
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Amit Dave/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies International Monetary Fund FollowWASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Thursday issued a rare joint statement pledging to step up their cooperation to address climate change, debt vulnerabilities and countries' digital transitions. The IMF and World Bank were established in 1944 at a meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. DEBT VULNERABILITIESThe two institutions also said they will incorporate climate considerations into their work on debt sustainability for low-income countries. The IMF and World Bank have worked closely on debt sustainability issues, both pushing for improved restructuring frameworks. On the digital transition, the two institutions said they would collaborate to help countries to connect their citizens to online services and reduce barriers to digital inclusion.

Persons: Ajay Banga, Amit Dave, Kristalina Georgieva, Joe Biden, Banga, David Lawder, Paul Simao Organizations: Ministers, Central Bank governors, REUTERS, International Monetary, Monetary Fund, World Bank, Woods, IMF, Bank, Advisory Group, Sustainability Trust, Thomson Locations: Gandhinagar, India, Bretton Woods , New Hampshire, Banga, U.S

☆ Explainer: What is the 'Bridgetown Initiative' asking for at Paris summit?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] An aerial view shows the Seine River and the skyline of La Defense financial and business district near Paris, France, June 19, 2023. REUTERS/Stephanie LecocqPARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - President Macron hosts a summit in Paris starting Thursday to discuss reform of the world's multilateral finance institutions in the face of climate change and other development challenges. A key topic of discussion will be suggestions from a group of developing countries, led by Barbados, dubbed the 'Bridgetown Initiative'. They should simplify and harmonise the way countries can apply to access loans across the world. The international financial institutions should also finance development plans that help protect shared resources.

Persons: Stephanie Lecocq PARIS, Macron, Simon Jessop, Leigh Thomas, Christina Fincher Organizations: La Defense, REUTERS, Bridgetown Initiative, Monetary Fund, Rapid, IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank, Development Association, Growth Trust, Resilience, Sustainability Trust, World Trade Organisation, International Financial, Thomson Locations: Paris, France, Barbados, Bridgetown

☆ Explainer: What is the 'Bridgetown Initiative' asking for at Paris financial summit?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] An aerial view shows the Seine River and the skyline of La Defense financial and business district near Paris, France, June 19, 2023. REUTERS/Stephanie LecocqPARIS, June 20 (Reuters) - President Macron hosts a summit in Paris this week to discuss reform of the world's multilateral finance institutions in the face of climate change and other development challenges. A key topic of discussion will be suggestions from a group of developing countries, led by Barbados, dubbed the 'Bridgetown Initiative'. Simplify and harmonise the way countries can apply to access loans across the world, and provide more support in the process. The international financial institutions should also finance development plans that help protect shared resources.

Persons: Stephanie Lecocq PARIS, Macron, Simon Jessop, Leigh Thomas, Christina Fincher Organizations: La Defense, REUTERS, Bridgetown Initiative, Monetary, Rapid, IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank, Development Association, Growth Trust, Resilience, Sustainability Trust, World Trade Organisation, International Financial, Thomson Locations: Paris, France, Barbados, Bridgetown

☆ Africa needs more help with climate change, debt and food crises
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Joe Bavier | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - Africa is struggling with the triple shock of rising debt burdens, an ongoing food crisis and climate change fallout and needs more help from international institutions and wealthy nations to cope, African finance ministers said on Saturday. "African countries are really victims. The trio were speaking on behalf of the continent's finance ministers. The African finance ministers, meanwhile, called for a G20-backed framework aimed at helping countries restructure burdensome debt to go further. Two African countries - Zambia and Ghana - have already defaulted on their sovereign debt since the start of the pandemic.

Kenya, along with other African frontier market nations, has been frozen out of international capital markets since early last year. However, it expects $250 million from syndicated loans this month and a $1 billion budgetary support loan from the World Bank in May, Njoroge said. "This compensates for the $1.2 billion we couldn't get from the market last year." Njoroge said Kenya is also seeking a new loan under the Fund's Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) to help countries ensure sustainable growth. Stubbornly high inflation that provoked a larger than expected rate hike last month was largely due to high food prices.

☆ Analysis: Debt crunch looms for weaker economies with a wall of bond maturities ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Jorgelina Do Rosario | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"A more prolonged period without market access would be of more concern for the lower-rated tiers of the emerging markets sovereign universe," said James Wilson, EM sovereign strategist for ING. Tapping international debt markets hasn't been a problem across the board for emerging economies. The JPMorgan's emerging markets bond index (EMBI) for high yield debt is at 900 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, and has largely remained over 800 bps since the beginning of last year. The Russia conflict and then the Fed hiking cycle led to higher spreads for a much longer period," said Gregory Smith, emerging markets fund manager at London-based M&G Investment. A weaker U.S. dollar should help countries to tap international markets in the medium term, but recent data fueled jitters that restrictive central bank policies could push the global economy into recession.

☆ Yellen urges IMF to press creditors to finalize debt restructurings
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday called for quicker action to resolve several outstanding sovereign debt restructuring cases and urged the International Monetary Fund to press all bilateral creditors to finalize such deals. The Treasury said Yellen raised the issue during meetings with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calviño, who heads the IMF's steering committee, ahead of next week's IMF and World Bank spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. "Secretary Yellen urged the IMF to deepen its efforts to support low- and middle-income countries facing debt distress, including by continuing to press all bilateral official creditors to finalize outstanding debt restructuring cases," the IMF said in a statement. It added that Yellen discussed with Georgieva and Calviño priorities for the IMF and World Bank meetings, recent developments in the global economy and financial system, and the need to continue support for low-income and vulnerable countries. Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Leslie Adler and Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Creative green finance can go a long way in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

PARIS, Jan 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Rich democracies are increasingly keen to help the Global South fight climate change. Though they will struggle to write big cheques, there are ways to make a little cash go a long way. The good news is rich countries have ways to get money flowing without dipping much into their own pockets. One plan is for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to use their balance sheets more aggressively to fight climate change. Rich countries should therefore put more capital into those MDBs that show the most enthusiasm for the task.

"It's important for us to have clear agreement because this is what we have now to finance our development," he said. President Felix Tshisekedi's government has been revisiting a 2007 deal struck by his predecessor Joseph Kabila under which Sinohydro Corp (SINOH.UL) and China Railway Group Limited agreed to build roads and hospitals in exchange for a 68% stake in the Sicomines venture as well as a 2008 contract with CMOC. "We have already a framework, we have some key elements of change that we want to bring in that agreement," Kazadi said of Sicomines, though he declined to provide further details. "In only five days they have managed to burn and export 27 kilograms," Kazadi said, speaking of the joint venture that is owned 55% by the United Arab Emirates with the remainder owned by Kinshasa. Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Jorgelina do Rosario, editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The veteran finance minister said multilateral development banks and international donors have been "quite flexible" with ways to meet Pakistan's external financing needs estimated at about $32 billion after devastating floods. But asked whether Pakistan would seek to reduce debt principal, he said "rescheduling is fine, but we are not seeking a haircut. RUPEE DEFENDERDar, who served as Pakistan's finance minister three previous times -- most recently from 2013 to 2017 -- is known as a staunch defender of the rupee . Dar said that he views the "true value" of the rupee at a level under 200 to the dollar. The Pakistan finance minister added that the IMF's new emergency "food shock" borrowing window may also be a good fit for the country, which has lost crops due to devastating floods and may need to import up to half million of tons of wheat in the next year.

☆ French development minister backs World Bank reforms, calls for U.S. SDR loans
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Last week, Yellen called on the World Bank and other multilateral development lenders to revamp their business models, stretch their balance sheets and harness more private capital to dramatically boost lending to address global needs such as climate change. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterYellen asked for an "evolution roadmap" from the World Bank by the end of December. Zacharopoulou, who is attending the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington this week, said France was ready to help with the reforms. Despite strong support for increasing resources to war-torn Ukraine at the IMF and World Bank meetings, Zacharopoulou said that countries also needed to keep up a strong focus on supporting other developing countries. The United States has not contributed any of its $101.5 billion share of the SDR allocation to the trust funds, a move that would require approval from Congress.

☆ Analysis: IMF plugs financing gaps as riskier emerging markets face squeeze
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Jorgelina Do Rosario | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Ghana, Egypt, Tunisia and Malawi are all in talks on some type of IMF financing. Countries' debt burdens have risen. Turning to the IMF for financing has been the traditional playbook for smaller, strained countries in times of crisis. A set of new IMF tools should also help funnel more funds to such countries in the short-term. "But IMF does act as an anchor and allows access to a broader set of funding, even if not from the market," said Alexandru-Chidesciuc.

read moreAnd Pakistan's central bank reserves of $8.6 billion are sufficient for just about a month of imports. However, the Bangladesh central bank's executive director, Serajul Islam, told Reuters, "No such decision has been taken yet," in reference to trade in local currencies with India. Last week, the Bangladesh central bank freed up banks to do transactions in Chinese yuan, so as to enable trade with China. "SBI's circular is very alarming, as they have said not to take exposure on Bangladesh exports," the exporter added. "Bangladesh is a major trading partner and if a premier bank like SBI does not take exposure, how will the trade grow?

„Acum avem semnale că am primit undă verde pentru a putea continua şi vom contacta şi alte părţi. China şi-a exprimat interesul de a participa şi mă aştept ca şi alte economii emergente cu fundamente solide şi rezerve puternice să poată face acelaşi lucru”, a spus Kristalina Georgieva, la finalul summitului liderilor G7. Georgieva a salutat de asemenea angajamentul G7 de a dona un miliard de vaccinuri Covid-19 drept un pas important spre combaterea pandemiei, adăugând că discuţiile vor continua în cadrul G20. „Acesta este atât un imperativ moral, cât şi o necesitate economică. Am văzut în trecut că această divergenţă duce la mai multă inegalitate, creează un mediu pentru mai multă instabilitate în lume”, a spus directorul FMI.

Persons: Georgieva, FMI . Georgieva Organizations: FMI, G7, Monetar Internaţional, G20 Locations: China, FMI

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