Simeon Ebulu
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, on Tuesday said the global financial body was very concerned about the negative outlook for global growth this year brought about by the COVD-19 pandemic.
She said IMF was particularly worried about the strain a downturn would have on emerging markets and low-income countries.
She spoke yesterday during an extraordinary conference call of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Washington DC, the United States capital.
She said the IMF welcomes decisive actions taken to shield people and the economy from COVID-19, that led to a decline in volatility in major financial markets in recent days.
She said IMF’s forecast of a recovery next year is hinged on how “we manage to contain the virus and reduce the level of uncertainty,” saying that is the reason IMF is in support of the “ambitious G20 action plan to strengthen the capacity of health systems to cope with the epidemic; to stabilise the world economy through timely, targeted and coordinated measures and to pave the way towards recovery.”
Georgieva assured that the IMF was ever ready to “do our part,” saying it has already “got a strong mandate” from its governing body, the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), on reforms to “strengthen our crisis response.”
She said: “In particular, it endorsed initiatives to: Enhance access to our emergency facilities, as now some 85 countries indicate they rely on them for financial support; build up our capacity to serve our poorest members; and help countries experiencing foreign exchange shortages, including possibly by short-term liquidity line.”
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