World Leaders Wrap Up Week of Talks at G20, IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings

IMF Calls Global Economy "Underwhelming" with Low Growth and High Debts and Prices

Finance ministers from all over the world close a week of talks focused on the global economy, unsustainable country debts and climate challenges. The IMF forecast global economic growth at 3.2% annually, a decades low and what the Fund called, "underwhelming." 

“We heard a lot of messages during the meetings that the economy was strong, but the weak economic growth projections haunted the meetings,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and a United Nations finance expert who monitored IMF meetings since 2010. "The forecasts for Africa and the Middle East were awful and are coupled with high youth unemployment and food crises." 

The low growth and high debt is an “unforgiving combination,” said the IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in her curtain-raiser speech.

“The IMF and G20 should not treat what is happening as a short-term debt payment problem. We are experiencing the most significant global debt crisis in decades,” added LeCompte. “Our failure to act now on debt crisis solutions means more difficult and expensive debt problems in the future.”

The World Bank reports that deficits in the average low-income country doubled, becoming the main driver of high indebtedness. In the poorest of those countries, average income remains 14% below their pre-pandemic levels.

G20 Finance ministers, in their last meeting under the Brazilian Presidency, endorsed a plan to expand the funding capacity of development banks. Reforms agreed this year will increase development bank finance by $35 billion a year, about one-eighth of what experts commissioned by the group said was needed.

"Brazil's G20 Presidency set a path to reach climate and development targets," shared LeCompte. "The questions are how long will it take for the G20 to follow that path and whether the world has enough time to wait."

While the G20 managed to deliver a consensus statement, the policymaking bodies of the IMF and the World Bank did not.

"War and conflicts continue to make it difficult for world leaders to forge agreements,” commented LeCompte. 

Decisions announced at the IMF meetings included increasing IMF zero-interest rate lending and the reduction of IMF interest rates on large, long-term emergency loans.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the Development Committee meeting here

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMFC meeting here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the G20 ministerial meeting here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the World Economic Outlook report here.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's curtain-raiser speech here

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Jubilee USA Statement on Development Committee and IMF/World Bank Meetings

The IMF and World Bank's Development Committee, a major policymaking body for the institutions, met in Washington, DC 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 pandemics, 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 and World Bank Meetings since 2010, releases the following statement on the Annual Meetings and the Development Committee meeting:

“While reports this week noted the global economy’s resilience, incomes in the poorest countries are still 14% lower than before the pandemic.

“World Bank members are looking hard at what its role should be in supporting the investments needed to reduce poverty.

“Since many countries are mired in debt, they have limited capacity to protect their most vulnerable in the face of multiple crises.  

“For the second year in a row, development bank finance is essentially going to pay debts held by private creditors.

“This year donors to the International Development Association are negotiating new pledges. The pledges so far are disappointing."

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMFC meeting here.

Find information on Jubilee USA's IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings events here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the G20 ministerial meeting here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the World Economic Outlook report here.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's curtain-raiser speech here

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Jubilee USA Statement on IMFC Press Briefing and IMF Meetings

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank conclude their Annual Meetings on Saturday. The International Monetary Financial Committee, the IMF policymaking body, met on Friday on the global economic situation, debt, fiscal constraints, inflation, the climate crisis, wars and other challenges.

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 IMFC Chair's statement and the IMF Meetings:

“We heard a lot of messages during the meetings that the economy was strong, but the weak economic growth projections haunted the meetings.

"Low economic growth coupled with high debt remains a recipe for crisis in developing countries.

“War and conflicts take too many human lives and prevents cooperation and decisions on global economic agreements.

“There was little progress for many developing countries struggling with unpayable debts and multiple crises.

“Failure to act on debt crisis solutions now, unfortunately means more difficult and costlier debt problems in the future.

“The IMF debt sustainability methodology – that signals when a country should seek restructuring – desperately needs upgrading.

“There were positive steps in the doubling of IMF zero-interest rate lending and the reduction of the additional interest the IMF charges on large, long-term emergency loans.

“Bolder actions are needed to deal with the debt crises in low- and middle-income countries.”

Find information on Jubilee USA's IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings events here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the G20 ministerial meeting here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the World Economic Outlook report here.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's curtain-raiser speech here

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Jubilee USA Statement on G20 Finance Ministers Meeting During the IMF and World Bank Annuals

G20 finance ministers met on global economic growth, debt, hunger, poverty, climate and expanding development bank aid to face multiple crises. 

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and a United Nations finance expert who monitored G20, IMF and World Bank meetings since 2010, releases the following statement on the G20 finance ministers meeting chaired by Brazil during the IMF and World Bank Meetings: 

“The G20 focused on rising debt payments for developing countries.

"The G20 should not treat what is happening as a short-term debt payment problem. We are experiencing the most significant global debt crisis in decades.

"There is agreement that rising borrowing costs faced by poor countries is a big factor in recurring debt crises.

"If we don't agree on a faster and more effective debt relief process, we will experience recurring debt crises that impact economies of developed and developing countries.

"The group agreed on reforms that will increase development bank finance by $35 billion a year.

"Brazil's G20 Presidency set a path to reach climate and development targets. The question is how long will it take for the G20 to follow it and whether the world has enough time.

"An important outcome was connecting some global development reforms to track poverty reduction.

"We hoped to see more consensus on debt swap frameworks. That was low hanging fruit.

"The Brazilian G20 Presidency effectively shed light on the need for taxation of the ultra-wealthy.

"Tax measures gained broader support at the G20 this year.

"The G20 managed to make some decisions on global economic issues but war and conflict continue to make it difficult to reach consensus."

Find Jubilee USA IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings event details here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMF World Economic Outlook report here

Read Jubilee USA's press release on IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's curtain raiser speech here

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IMF WEO Jubilee Statement

As world leaders arrive in Washington, DC for the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, the IMF releases its flagship World Economic Outlook report, where it forecasts growth as, "underwhelming" for 2024 and 2025 at 3.2%.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and a United Nations finance expert who monitored IMF meetings since 2010, releases the following statement on the IMF Meetings and World Economic Outlook Report:

“Global economic growth is still forecasted to be below pre-pandemic levels.

“Growth projections for the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa worsened, with climate, conflict and civil unrest impacting their economies.

“The IMF says many developing countries face challenges with paying their debts.

"The IMF reiterated that many countries will need debt restructuring."

Read the full World Economic Outlook Report here.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's curtain raiser speech here

Find Jubilee USA's IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings events here

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IMF/World Bank 2024 Annual Meeting Events

Jubilee 2025: Time for Religious Values to Inform Debt and Global Finance Architecture in Africa

October 25, 2024 | 8:30 - 10:00 am ET

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director, Jubilee USA Network

Lucy Esipila
Executive Secretary, Caritas Africa

Alhaj Ahmed Abajobir
Country Director, Islamic Relief Ethiopia

 Bishop Rose Nereya Ayiemba Okeno
Fourth Diocesan Bishop, ACK Diocese of Butere, Anglican Church, Kenya

Rev. Cyril Fayose
General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana

As 2025 has been declared a Jubilee year, African faith-based groups and leaders champion policy proposals for a debt and development finance architecture that makes Jubilee’s promise of hope and renewal a reality. The event facilitates religious groups’ dialogue on their value-based approach to these issues with finance authorities. This webinar is the second event in the Road to Jubilee 2025 webinar series.

Sponsors: All Africa Conference of Churches, Caritas Africa, Islamic Relief, Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa, Jubilee USA Network, Bread for the World

Location: WBG I 2-220

Registration to the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings will be required to access the premises. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2024/06/26/civil-society-policy-forum-annual-meetings-2024#1

A Tale of Two Emergencies: Debt Policies of International Financial Institutions and Fiscal Injustices from a Global South Perspective

October 25, 2024 | 1:30 - 3:00 pm ET 

Jason Rosario Braganza
Executive Director, Afrodad

 Jane Nalunga
 Executive Director, SEATINI

 Eric LeCompte
Executive Director, Jubilee USA Network

 Samantha Kanoyangwa
Coordinator, African Sovereign Debt Justice Network

 Mark Flanagan
Deputy Director, Strategy, Policy, and Review Department, IMF

Debt policies by the international financial institutions have attracted intense controversy over the past decades, exemplified most recently by the popular discontent expressed in most of the Global South countries following several rounds of austerity measures proposals. Situating the Global South financial crisis, the session will explore how to effectively solve the debt and fiscal conditionality crises in a way that will allow these countries to advance development goals.

Sponsors: La Red Latinoamericana por Justicia Económica y Social (LATINDADD), African Forum and Network on Debt and Development – AFRODAD, Eurodad, The Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and Jubilee USA Network

Location: IMF HQ2-03B-768

Registration to the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings will be required to access the premises. No registration is needed to access the Zoom livestream, available at: https://imf.zoom.us/j/94315177099?pwd=SBsrwZbSO71z5MpaC4HOEG416vAQGM.1

Pretend and Extend, or #CancelTheDebt? A Fork in the Road for the Debt Crisis

October 25, 2024 | 5:30 - 7:00 pm ET 

Patricia Miranda 
Global Advocacy Director, LATINDADD

Matthew Martin
Director, Development Finance International

Martín Guzmán
 Professor of Economics, Columbia University

Hassan Sherry
Senior Program and Research Officer, Arab NGO Network for Development

Allison Holland
Assistant Director and Division Chief, SPR Department IMF

The IMF insists there is no ‘systemic’ debt crisis requiring debt cancellation, but rather a ‘liquidity crisis’ requiring debt rescheduling. Civil society argues the opposite. What empirical bases best assess the extent of the crisis? What are the costs and risks of debt rescheduling and preemptive or post-default restructurings?

Sponsors: La Red Latinoamericana por Justicia Económica y Social (LATINDADD), African Forum and Network on Debt and Development – AFRODAD, Arab NGO Network for Development (annd), Arab Watch Coalition, Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), SLUG - Debt Justice Network Norway, Debt Justice, Development Finance International (DFI), Eurodad, The Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), MENA Fem Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice, Oxfam and Jubilee USA Network

Location: HQ2-03B-768B

Registration to the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings will be required to access the premises. No registration is needed to access the Zoom livestream, available at: https://imf.zoom.us/j/94281756423?pwd=RuWPaCfkXpHI1SVOElltYJ5rvc8o1H.1

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IMF Forecasts Low Growth, High Debts and Prices

Ahead of IMF, World Bank and G20 Meetings, IMF Head Delivers Views on Global Economy

"...our forecasts point to an unforgiving combination of low growth and high debt—a difficult future," stated IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaking ahead of the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Georgieva noted that public debt is higher than before the pandemic and in spite of declining inflation, prices remain high.

“While we experience lower inflation, prices for groceries will remain high for all of us,” said Eric LeCompte the Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network who attends the meetings. “Not enough jobs, high debt payments and food prices are impacting the poor the most.”

The role of the IMF in debt relief and restructurings will be on the agenda at the meetings. In June, Pope Francis called for urgent action on debt forgiveness and new international vehicles to address debt crises, in the lead up to the Jubilee 2025 year.

"Debating solutions for debt crises, that affect most developing countries, dominates the agenda of the upcoming meetings," shared LeCompte.

Georgieva noted that expanding conflicts could destabilize markets and economies and countries are making hard choices to address climate change or poverty.

"In addition to the loss of life because of war, there is a global human cost as war derails cooperation for global agreements on poverty, jobs and climate issues," explained LeCompte. "Georgieva stressed the stark choices that too many countries face to pay debt, address climate challenges or build schools."

Delivering her first curtain-raiser speech since members appointed Georgieva to a second term at the helm of the institution, she raised the need to regulate artificial intelligence as it could have a role in managing aspects of the global economy.

"Given artificial intelligence is being raised as a way to strengthen the economy, it is crucial that all of us participate in the decisions of if, how and where AI is used and who controls AI," said LeCompte. 

Pope Francis addressed the recent G7 Summit on the ethical implication of artificial intelligence.

The managing director's speech alluded to recent IMF decisions lowering high surcharges that countries pay on loans and increasing capacity to lend at zero percent interest rate to the poorest countries.

“Surcharges punish countries experiencing a crisis,” noted LeCompte. “The decision to lower the surcharges is a necessary step, but more action on surcharges is needed.”

Read Kristalina Georgieva's curtain-raiser speech here.

Read Pope Francis' June address on the focus of Jubilee 2025 here.  

Read Jubilee USA Network and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office's "Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture" paper series here

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Nobel Laureate, Former Economy Minister and Economic Experts Propose Improving IMF and World Bank Debt Analysis

Experts Present a Series of Papers to IMF Executive Directors Ahead of Annual Meetings

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and former Argentina Economy Minister Martin Guzman authored a study to improve how the IMF and World Bank analyze debt problems. The paper is part of “Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture,” a four-part series to appear as chapters in a book this fall. The papers are commissioned by the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and German foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The studies were presented to IMF and World Bank executive directors on September 5th, 2024.

The IMF and World Bank conduct debt sustainability analyses that guide prevention and solutions for debt crises. The experts assert that recent debt restructurings like those in Zambia, Sri Lanka and Ghana, faced delays because of differences among private creditors and the IMF and World Bank debt analysis.

“Too often debt sustainability analysis doesn't  provide the full picture to deal with the economic challenges that most countries face,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network. “These technical debt assessments impact all of us. The devil is in the details and current debt analysis underestimates debt crises, leads to failed recoveries or inflicts harm on the people of a country already in crisis."

The series of papers are written by experts familiar with debt sustainability. In addition to the paper from Stigltz and Guzman, other paper authors include Sherillyn Raga, Matthew Martin and Gail Hurley. These authors focused on economic shocks such as pandemics and weather events, the sustainable development and climate goals and accountability to affected populations.

“If debt analysis includes preparing for economic shocks, addressing climate changes and how people are fully impacted, we can better prevent and solve crises,” added LeCompte who serves on United Nations finance expert groups.

The IMF initiated a review of its methodology to assess debt in low-income countries. Pope Francis declared 2025 is a Jubilee year, calling for the forgiveness of unpayable debts and an international process to deal with debt crises.

Read the Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture paper series here.

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A Jubilee Policy Agenda for the Brazilian G20 Summit: Debt, Climate and Tax

Online: October 1, 2024 | 10:00 - 11:00 am ET 

Sr. Eugenia Amporfu 
Catholic Religious, Daughters of the Most Holy Trinity, and Professor, Department of Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Rev. Charles Chilfuya
Jesuit Priest and Director, JCAM Justice and Ecology Office, The Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM)

Dr. Mercy John
 National Secretary, the Women Wing, Christian Council of Nigeria

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director, Jubilee USA Network

Amir Ahmed Manghali
Regional Programs Coordinator for East Africa, Islamic Relief Worldwide

Sponsors: The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, the G20 Interfaith Forum, and Jubilee USA Network

Most countries face economic crises that are increasing poverty, inequality and hunger. Countries do not have the resources to deal with the impacts of climate change.

The webinar, is part of a series on priority appeals for action to the G20 from global religious institutions to address hunger, poverty, inequality and climate change. This November 2024, Brazil hosts the G20 presidential summit. This summit is the last before #Jubilee2025 declared by Pope Francis and interfaith leaders. Religious leaders and communities around the world are organizing to move the G20 to take urgent action. The coming Jubilee year arrives in a world facing unprecedented challenges and threats: a worsening climate, reversals in poverty reduction, rising inequality and intensifying wars and conflicts. 

The webinar, bringing together global leaders from different regions and traditions, will address how the G20 is a key actor in the upcoming Jubilee Year on debt, climate, tax and poverty.

Location: Online via Zoom.

RSVP by clicking here.

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The Practice of Sovereign Debt Sustainability Analysis

Jubilee USA partnered with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York to publish the Practice of Sovereign Debt Sustainability Analysis, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Martin Guzman.

The paper was the fourth to launch as part of a series that gathered practitioners to write on the theme "Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture." The papers will be chapters in a report to appear later in the summer. 

Practice of Sovereign Debt Sustainability Analysis, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Martin Guzman

Debt Sustainability Analyses (DSAs) are documents that hold serious implications for both debtors and creditors in sovereign debt negotiations. DSAs are not merely technical assessments of countries’ capacity to take on debt but are also grounded in political assumptions. A new study by Martín Guzmán and Joseph E. Stiglitz looks at the practice of the IMF’s debt sustainability analysis. They discuss how incentives and competing interests of stakeholders shape understandings of the debt sustainability constraints, endogenous effects of macroeconomics and fiscal policies, and beliefs on distribution of shocks. They identify areas for improvements in DSAs opportunity and publication timelines, dealing with the IMF’s role as a creditor, the treatment of foreign vs domestic currency debt, choosing correct discount factors, and the causes of over-optimism in baseline growth scenarios. 

Find the webpage for the "Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture" series here.

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