As part of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings, the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF policymaking body, met on COVID-19 economic crisis response and recovery, debt, aid, Special Drawing Rights, tax and climate.

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 IMFC Communiqué and IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings:

Ahead of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors met on COVID response, green and inclusive recovery, debt, Special Drawing Rights and global tax agreements.

Vietnamese Newspaper Kinh te & Do thi (Economic and Urban) quoted Eric LeCompte in an article discussing the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meeting. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

“Hot” issues at the 2021 annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank

By Nguyen Phuong

The annual meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will take place from October 11-17 in Washington, USA. In it, officials will discuss the global economy, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and global minimum corporate tax rate issues.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the Jubilee USA Network, said he is waiting to see if the world's wealthiest countries make commitments to fund more funding for the vaccine support program for low-income countries. especially in Africa.

Mr. LeCompte also expressed concern that if the IMF and World Bank do not push governments to act now, the global roll-out of vaccine support will continue to be delayed, and potentially fall short of its goals. The World Health Organization (WHO) is to vaccinate 70% of the population of each country by mid-2022.

Read more here.

Devex quoted Eric LeCompte in an article highlighting what to watch for in the upcoming World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meeting. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

5 things to watch at the World Bank-IMF annual meetings

By Shabtai Gold

Starting Monday, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are holding their annual meetings — under the shadow of a scandal around the bank’s Doing Business publication, which has embroiled IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and threatens the credibility of both institutions.

The timing of the crisis — with IMF’s board conducting a probe on Georgieva, its managing director and a former chief executive at the World Bank — could distract from the core work of the gatherings, which will see attendees participating in person and virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eric LeCompte, the executive director at Jubilee USA Network, which advocates for debt relief, said he is watching the meetings in Washington for signs that the world’s wealthiest countries will commit more to financing the vaccine rollout.

“The G-20 failed over the summer to solve the financing issue,” he said, referring to the group of industrial and emerging-market nations. “We are at a point now where the G-20 is really in a make-or-break moment.” The group will see its finance ministers meet during the World Bank-IMF event, and its leaders will hold high-level talks at the end of the month in Italy.

LeCompte said he worries that if the World Bank and IMF meetings don’t spur governments into action now, the rollout will suffer further delays, potentially derailing WHO’s goal of vaccinating 70% of each nation’s population by the middle of next year.

Read more here.

The IMF releases the 2021 Global Financial Statement Report.

The IMF releases the World Economic Outlook report downgrading growth for advanced and poor economies.

Ahead of IMF and G20 meetings, new debt relief measures move forward and 136 countries finalized an agreement on a minimum corporate tax.

"In the face of the pandemic, we are seeing progress on corporate and digital taxes,” said Eric LeCompte, the Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network. "Questions remain on whether or not we can agree on a high enough tax rate and to what degree developing countries will benefit."

.Members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting signed the “Statement on the Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalization of the Economy." The agreement updates and finalizes a reform of tax rules proposed in July.

As poor countries struggle with revenue to confront the coronavirus crisis, the IMF announced it will extend debt payment relief for 24 countries through January 10, 2022. Additional relief may be extended to April 13, 2022, if the IMF's Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust has resources.

"Expanding debt relief for the poorest countries is urgently needed,” stated LeCompte, a United Nations finance expert who worked on the IMF's debt relief trust. "The cancelled debt payments mean that needed funds can be directed to pandemic response."

Indonesian Newspaper Koran Jakarta quoted Eric LeCompte in an article discussing the International Monetary Fund's global economic growth estimates. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

IMF: Developing Countries' Recovery Will Take Years

By Fredrikus Wolgabrink Sabini

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that global economic growth in 2021 will be slightly lower than the previous forecast in July which was projected to grow 6 percent. The downward revision was due to debt and inflation risks as well as different economic trends after the Covid-19 pandemic.

IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, in an online speech at Bocconi University, Italy, Tuesday (5/10), said the global economy was rebounding, but the recovery was limited due to the vaccination gap.

Meanwhile, Jubilee USA Network Executive Director, Eric LeCompte, said high debt, soaring food prices and a lack of vaccines are the biggest threats facing developing countries.

"We calculate the economic loss in the trillions if developing countries cannot access a vaccine," LeCompte said.

Read more here.

Indonesian Newspaper Republika quoted Eric LeCompte in an article discussing the International Monetary Fund's 2022 global economic growth projection. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

IMF Cuts 2022 Global Economic Growth Projection

By Retno Wulandhari

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that global economic growth in 2021 will fall slightly below July's forecast of 6 percent. IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said the downgrade took into account the risks associated with debt, inflation and different economic trends after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even as the global economy bounces back, according to Georgieva, the pandemic continues to limit recovery. One of the main obstacles is the high vaccination gap rate. This is due to limited access to vaccines.

Executive Director at Jubilee USA Network, Eric LeCompte, said high debt, soaring food prices and a lack of vaccines were the biggest threats facing developing countries. "We calculate the economic loss in the trillions if developing countries can't access a vaccine," Eric said.

Read more here.

The East African mentions Eric LeCompte on the civil society open letter to the IMF calling for more emergency currency allocations and redistribution of reserves from wealthy economies to developing ones. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.

Uhuru: Debt relief and vaccines crucial for recovery of developing countries

By Aggrey Mutambo

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday reiterated his call for supportive debt relief and vaccine access for poor countries, arguing they will be the two most important areas to help the world beat back the Covid-19 pandemic.

The President had been calling for vaccine equity and debt relief in most of his recent speeches, a stance now adopted by the African Union. Developing countries argue that debt relief, emergency funding more trade and access to vaccines will protect them in spite of poor health care systems.The International Monetary Fund, for example, created an emergency fund, known as the Special Drawing Rights, to help countries fight the pandemic crisis.

But critics have argued the SDRs worth $650 billion, which are based on quotas of IMF members, have benefited developed countries more. Last week, more than 250 civil society activists and organisations wrote an open letter to the IMF, asking that the allocation be increased to $3 trillion and that “economies are in less need of SDRs given their access to a wider array of monetary and financial tools for the response and recovery.”

They argued that it was “essential that the recent allocation be quickly followed by rechanneling a significant portion of advanced economies’ SDRs to developing countries,” an idea IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has agreed could help. “Wealthy countries received more than $400 billion of the relief aid while developing countries received around $235 billion,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA, one of the NGOs that appended their signature on the open letter. “Wealthy countries can't use the special currency and should donate it to poor countries being ravaged by the pandemic.”

Read more here.