Act Now, Act Together - IMF Chief

COLOMBO (News 1st) -  IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva says the world economy has been hit by one shock after another Covid, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and climate disasters on every continent.

She further said that on Tuesday (11), they cut the global growth forecast to 2.7 percent in 2023, and across many economies, the risks of recession are rising.

She said the IMF needs transformational reforms to address climate change, make digitalization work for people, and address inequality. Also, to confront these issues, IMF must act with a sense of urgency now, and we must act together.

"The IMF is working with our 190 members on these issues. Our economic analysis is front and center to help countries navigate this complex environment and avoid policy mistakes", she said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided $260 billion in financial support to 93 countries.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, IMF has supported 18 new and augmented programs with close to $90 billion.

Currently, the IMF has 28 additional countries expressing interest in receiving support from the Fund and that comes on top of the $650 billion SDR allocation.

She said that the IMF has an ambition of $100 billion of on-lending of SDRs from countries in a strong position.

"We have created our first ever long-term financing instrument to support the transformation of economies—the Resilience and Sustainability Trust. It is now operational. We have pledges of $40 billion, and staff-level agreements for the first three countries: Barbados, Costa Rica, and Rwanda", she said during the meeting.

Additionally, the IMF is pressing for a more effective debt resolution mechanism.