The Indian Panorama

Tag: Kristalina Georgieva

  • IMF head expects less than 3% global economic growth in 2023

    IMF head expects less than 3% global economic growth in 2023

    The International Monetary Fund is not expected to downgrade its forecast for 2.7% growth in 2023, the head of the global lender said on Thursday, noting that concerns about an oil price spike had failed to materialize and labor markets remained strong. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said 2023 would be another “tough year” for the global economy, and inflation remained stubborn, but she did not expect another year of successive downgrades like those seen last year, barring unexpected developments.

    “Growth continues to slow down in 2023,” she told reporters at the IMF’s headquarters in Washington. “The more positive piece of the picture is in the resilience of labor markets. As long as people are employed, even if prices are high, people spend … and that has helped the performance.” She added that the IMF does not expect any major downgrades. “That’s the good news.” Georgieva said the IMF expected the slowdown in global growth to “bottom out” and “turn around towards the end of ’23 and into ’24.”

    Georgieva said there was much hope that China – which previously contributed some 35% to 40% of global growth, but had “disappointing” results last year – would once again contribute to global growth, likely from mid-2023. But that depended on Beijing not changing course and sticking to its plans to reverse its zero-COVID policies, she said.

    She said the United States – the biggest economy in the world – was likely to see a soft landing, and would suffer only a mild recession, if it did enter a technical recession. But Georgieva said great uncertainty remained, including a significant climate event, a major cyberattack or the danger of escalation in Russia’s war in Ukraine, for instance through the use of nuclear weapons. “We are now in a more shockprone world and we have to be open-minded that there could be risk turn that we are not even thinking about,” she said. “That’s the whole point of the last years. The unthinkable has happened twice.” She cited concerns about growing social unrest in Brazil, Peru and other countries, and the impact of tightening financial conditions remained unclear. But inflation remained “stubborn” and central banks should continue to press for price stability, she added.

  • IMF flags debt restructuring hurdles, says banning crypto should be an option

    IMF flags debt restructuring hurdles, says banning crypto should be an option

    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

  • ‘Inflation finally trimming’: IMF chief’s optimistic assessment of world economy

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes that a cost of living crisis that was triggered in many countries following global inflation spike is subsiding, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
    “We see inflation finally trimming down in quite a number of countries. The chance of finally getting on top of the problem of cost of living being a major disrupter for millions and millions of people, we see light at the end of this tunnel,” Kristalina Georgieva said as many countries in the world continue to face inflation and increased food and energy costs. Last month, IMF estimated that world consumer-price increases would slow to 6.6% this year. This would be 0.1 percentage point higher than the October projection, following 8.8% in 2022. IMF also forecast slowing to 4.3% in 2024 and inflation rates to be lower in about 84% of countries in 2023 than in 2022. World gross domestic product will likely grow an estimated 2.9% in 2023, 0.2 percentage point more than forecast in October, IMF had said. Although, IMF raised its global economic growth outlook for the first time in a year, premised on US spending and China’s reopening after Covid. Kristalina Georgieva reiterated the Fund’s outlook, saying that even though global growth is falling, while global growth is at a low point, the IMF continues to be worried owing to the Covid pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the deadly earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and Syria.n “The world economy is still in a very difficult place. Global growth is slowing down in 2023 but it might be a turning point,” the IMF chief said.

  • We count a lot on India’s G-20 leadership: IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva

    We count a lot on India’s G-20 leadership: IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): At a time when the world is faced with continued economic slowdown and social distress, the international community counts a lot on India’s leadership of G-20, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday, January 12.

    “India, which is the president of G-20 countries, remains among the countries that perform better than global average and by a good percentage,” IMF Managing Director told reporters during a media roundtable.

    India formally assumed the G20 (Group of 20) Presidency on December 1. The next G20 Leaders’ Summit at the level of Heads of State/Government is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi.

    “We count a lot on India’s leadership of the G-20. Because it is such a critical time for the world to protect its own wellbeing by protecting the integrated global economy. I hope that India will do that huge global service keeping us together,” she said.

    Georgieva lauded India for embracing digitization. “What we see as working extremely well for India is how the country has taken digitization that was accelerated by covid-19 to be a strong comparative advantage, both for public policy and for private sector growth,” the IMF Managing Director said in response to a question.

    (Source: PTI)

  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met IMF’s DMD Gita Gopinath, discussed chairmanship of G20, among many other issues

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met IMF’s DMD Gita Gopinath, discussed chairmanship of G20, among many other issues

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Washington on Monday, April 18,  for the annual spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. On Tuesday, April 19, she met the head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva. On the sidelines of these meetings, the Finance Minister  met John Neufer, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Semiconductor Industry Association. John Neufer told Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that he was excited by the Government of India’s initiatives to promote investment in the semiconductor ecosystem. He also appreciated India’s commitment to secure a trusted position in the global supply chain. Sitharaman met  on Thursday, April 21,  the International Monetary Fund  First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath and  discussed many issues including India’s G20 presidency. India will preside over the G20 from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023, culminating with the G20 summit in India in 2023.

  • Indian-origin economist Kalpana Kochhar joining Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

    Indian-origin economist Kalpana Kochhar joining Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

    WASHINGTON (TIP): Noted Indian-origin economist Kalpana Kochhar, who heads the Human Resources Department of the IMF, is retiring next month after serving for over three decades with the organization to join the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Kochhar, who served in various senior positions during her three decades at the International Monetary Fund, will retire on July 30, and will join as Director of Development Policy and Finance, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the IMF announced on Wednesday.

    “In her 33 years at the Fund, Kalpana provided a shining example of strong leadership and dedication to the Fund’s mission. She brought a keen intellect and remarkable passion to her work and always focused her efforts on helping those we serve. Her work helped to shape the Fund and, while we wish her very best in her new role, she will be sorely missed,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

    As Director of Human Resources, Kochhar oversaw the IMF’s HR policies and the recruitment and retention of more than 4,000 IMF employees from nearly 150 countries based in Washington, DC, and in overseas offices.

    In the past five years, she led the successful review and modernization of the IMF’s compensation and benefits program, as well as the successful implementation of a large and complex human capital management IT system which helped to simplify, streamline and modernize HR at the Fund.

    “From start to finish, Kalpana provided the management team and the Executive Board with sound advice and displayed excellent judgment in all HR-related matters,” Georgieva said.

    “Throughout her career, Kalpana has pioneered change in the institution, particularly on gender and emerging market issues, while always exhibiting a positive and caring management style,” she added.

    Georgieva said Kochar’s caring spirit was especially evident during the current health crisis.

    “This caring spirit was especially evident during the current health crisis when, spurred on by her compassion, HRD worked hard to effect policy and other interventions to ensure that staff continued to feel a sense of belonging and connectedness. She leaves a distinguished legacy, and opened an admirable pathway for others to follow,” Georgieva said.

    As Deputy Director in the Asia and Pacific Department (APD), she was responsible for setting up and executing the IMF’s strategy for Asia, including guiding analytical work and policy advice to a number of Asian countries to help promote economic growth, financial stability, and gender equality.

    As Deputy Director in the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department (SPR), she led research and policy formulation on gender equity, income inequality, jobs and growth, and structural reforms.

    In SPR, she also oversaw a comprehensive review of the IMF’s surveillance policy and practices aimed at enhancing engagement with the member countries.

    Before these roles, Kochhar was Assistant Director and Senior Personnel Manager in the Research Department. In between her Fund positions, Kochhar was seconded to the World Bank on a two-year stint as Chief Economist for the South Asia Region, lending her vast knowledge and experience on Asia to the Bank’s work in the region.

    There, she pioneered work on trade and financial integration in South Asia and established a high-level advisory group of economists and foreign policy specialists from the region to assist the Bank in these areas, a media release said.

    Kochhar started at the IMF as an Economist in 1988. Over the years, she built on her expertise in Asian regional matters with desk economist positions in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and by leading work on Korea and Malaysia during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.

    Prior to joining the Fund, she was an Assistant Professor at George Washington University in Washington DC.

    Kochhar is also an accomplished author, and her research on Asia, gender, and a variety of development issues has appeared in numerous IMF working papers, Staff Discussion Notes, books, blogs, and publications including the widely circulated Finance and Development magazine, IMF said in a media release.