Nirmala Sitharaman meets Gita Gopinath at IMF-World Bank Spring meet: Highlights

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met the First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the sidelines of the ongoing meeting and discussed key issues including debt vulnerabilities. Sitharaman is leading a high-powered Indian delegation to attend the annual Spring Meeting of the IMF and the World Bank. The theme for this year's World Bank-IMF meet has been titled as: Reshaping Development for a New Era.

Here are the key highlights from the meeting:

G20 Presidency of India: Sitharaman acknowledged IMF's support to the G20 Presidency of India in the form of inputs towards developing evidence-based policy guidance. 

Crypto Assets: Gita Gopinath congratulated the finance minister on the fruitful discussions that translated the February consensus on the need for a globally coordinated policy response on Crypto assets. 

Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable: Sitharaman congratulated Gopinath for accelerating India's work on the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable along with the World Bank and reiterated India's commitment to foster efforts to address growing debt vulnerabilities, the finance ministry said in a tweet after the meeting.

World Economic Outlook: During the meeting, the finance minister noted IMF's concerns on key downside risks to the economy including financial sector stress, rising real interest rates, elevated debt, inflation, geo-political fragmentation, and faltering growth in China, as highlighted in World Economic Outlook . 

Global Debt Crisis: The Finance Minister on Tuesday also met her counterpart from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Aljadaan, during which they discussed the global debt crisis and strengthening of the multilateral development banks, an Indian initiative under its G-20 presidency.

Risks to Economy: According to Union finance ministry's tweet, Sitharaman noted IMF's concerns on key downside risks to the economy. 

The meeting between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank commenced on April 10 and is set to conclude on April 16.

During the weeklong evet, there are meetings scheduled of the joint World Bank Group/IMF Development Committee and the IMF International Monetary and Financial Committee, where progress on the work of the institutions are put up for discussion. Other featured events include regional briefings, press conferences, and fora focused on international development, issues of debt, economic recovery, and climate.  

(With agency inputs)