The IMF and World Bank's Development Committee, a major policymaking body for the institutions, met in Marrakesh in the context of the IMF and World Bank Annual meetings. The Development Committee and the IMF and World Bank meetings focused on growth, debt, inflation, expanding development bank finance and aid, responses to the pandemic and the climate and food crises.
Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and a United Nations finance expert who has monitored IMF meetings since 2010, releases the following statement on the World Bank and IMF Meetings and the Development Committee meeting:
“As poor growth is forecasted for the global economy it will be very difficult for developing countries to recover from the pandemic and food crises.
“The Bank’s listing of eight global challenges is helpful because they all deal with aspects of poverty.
“It's important that the World Bank wishes to tackle more global challenges, but we have no idea where the money is coming from to tackle these global problems.
“We need to do a better job at responding to the climate, food and inflation crises in the poorest countries. Unless we deal with their high debts, we won't have the resources to address these crises.
“Some good news on getting new resources is that there is growing momentum to increase resources for development banks.
“If wealthy countries donate Special Drawing Rights to development banks, we can put more resources where it is most needed.
“Development banks can help address debt crises by making sure debt contracts have clauses where debt payments stop in the face of disasters and by promoting debt swaps, transparency and accountability.
"We can only stop the debt and food crises by stopping these ridiculous policies of raising interest rates."
Read Jubilee USA's press release on the Africa Catholic Bishops Annual Meetings statement here.
Read Jubilee USA's press release on the IMF World Economic Outlook report and the Global Financial Stability report here.
Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMF Global Financial Stability report here.
Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMF World Economic Outlook report here.
Read Jubilee USA's press release on Annual Meetings agenda here.
Read Jubilee USA's press release on IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's curtain raiser speech here.