Group of 20 (G20) nations have some disagreements over restructuring debt for distressed economies, the chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Saturday, adding that banning private cryptocurrencies should be an option. India‘s G20 presidency comes as its South Asian neighbours Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan are seeking urgent IMF funds due to an economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. China, the world’s largest bilateral creditor, urged the group of big economies on Friday to conduct a fair, objective and in-depth analysis of the causes of global debt issues as clamour grows for lenders to take a large haircut, or accept losses, on loans.

“On debt restructuring, while there are still some disagreements, we now have the global sovereign debt roundtable with consideration of all public and private creditors,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters after chairing the roundtable with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

“We just finished a session in which it was clear that there is a commitment to bridge differences for the benefit of countries.” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said there were no “deliverables” from the meeting, which was mostly organisational.

Further discussions of the panel, which includes major bilateral creditors including China, India and the G7 countries, several debtor countries, are planned around the time of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in April. “We certainly had that agreement that this is a useful forum,” Yellen told Reuters in an interview. “We look forward to participating in it.”

CRYPTO RESTRICTIONS

Apart from restructuring debt, regulating cryptocurrencies is another priority area for India, which Georgieva agreed with.

“We have to differentiate between central bank digital currencies that are backed by the state and stable coins, and crypto assets that are privately issued,” Georgieva said.

“There has to be a very strong push for regulation… if regulation fails, if you’re slow to do it, then we should not take off the table banning those assets, because they may create financial stability risks.”

Yellen said she had not suggested the “outright banning of crypto activities, but it was critical to put in place a strong regulatory framework.”

                Source: Reuters

IMF urges central banks to ‘stay the course’ till prices tamed

Central banks globally must remain vigilant until inflation is firmly under control, according to International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

“I want to be clear we are not yet seeing inflation going down to target fast enough,” Georgieva told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance chiefs’ meetings in Bengaluru, India. “Central banks need to stay the course until we are comfortable that price stability is returning.”

As many central bankers begin to slow their policy tightening, inflation prints across the world remain sticky. With China reopening at a pace that’s exceeded expectations, Georgieva remained hopeful that domestic consumption there remains a growth driver for the world with little risk for an additional inflation flare-up.

In the US, the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 5.4% in January from a year earlier and the core metric was up 4.7%, both marking pickups after several months of declines. In Europe, underlying inflation is forecast to stay at a record 5.3% and in many parts of Asia, including India and Australia, core inflation has remained sticky.

                Source: Bloomberg