Page 11 - International Monetary Fund

India to chair Commonwealth group on reform of financial architecture

Finance ministers from various Commonwealth countries have called for a systemic reform of the global financial architecture to enhance access to development financing for vulnerable countries

Why climate change makes GDP unsuitable for measuring economic churn

GDP does not capture issues like welfare, inequality and human development. Nor does GDP capture the damage to the environment caused by economic activity, writes T N Ninan

IMF sees India's combined debt-to-GDP ratio rising for 4 yrs starting FY24

In its latest Fiscal Monitor report, IMF said India's combined debt-to-GDP ratio will rise a tad to 83.2% in FY24 and will hit a high of 83.8% in FY27 before it starts to moderate

IMF slashes Pakistan's growth rate to 0.5% for FY23 amid high inflation

The IMF has lowered its forecast for Pakistan's economic growth rate from 2 per cent to just 0.5 per cent for the current fiscal year, amid high inflation and a growing unemployment rate in the cash-strapped country. This showed an unambiguous deterioration of economic fundamentals over the last six months since October when the IMF forecast the country's gross domestic product to grow by 3.5 per cent against 6 per cent for 2022 ago and inflation at 20 per cent against 12.1 per cent. The revision in Pakistan's growth prospects is in line with similar 0.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent projected last week by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, respectively. They also projected inflation at 29.5 per cent and 27.5 per cent respectively for the current year, the Dawn newspaper reported on Wednesday. In its flagship World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF has also estimated the unemployment rate in Pakistan to rise to 7 per cent against 6.2 per cent last year. For fiscal 2024, ...

China will support Sri Lanka's debt rework, says Central bank governor

The IMF on March 20 approved a $3 billion loan for the island nation to help bail it out of the worst economic crisis in decades

IMF warns it's too soon to sound all-clear on global financial turmoil

While forceful actions by policymakers to a series of bank collapses have reduced investor anxiety, the financial markets remain fragile and stressed, the IMF said

FM Nirmala Sitharaman to attend Spring Meetings of IMF-World Bank

She will also participate in G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings

FM to embark on US tour from Monday, to attend World Bank Group, IMF meets

She will also be attending the G20 meetings and other associated meetings, which are scheduled to take place from April 10 to April 16

IMF deal well on track, assures Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar

Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday assured a jittery nation that the much-delayed ninth review of the USD 7 billion IMF programme was well on track, a day after he cancelled his visit to Washington for the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Cash-strapped Pakistan and the IMF have failed to reach a staff-level agreement on the much-needed USD 1.1 billion bailout package aimed at preventing the country from going bankrupt. The funds are part of a USD 6.5 billion bailout package the IMF approved in 2019, which analysts say is critical if Pakistan is to avoid defaulting on external debt obligations. The only hitch for the IMF deal to go through was the confirmation of a USD 1 billion commitment from a friendly country, Dar said in his address to the nation. In the past two weeks, one of our friendly countries has again given them (the IMF) the confirmation [of its commitment to help Pakistan] with USD 2 billion. We are now only awaiting the confirmation of a USD

How reward-driven are top-level appointments to World Bank and IMF?

Opinion is divided on the issue, with one section of experts and seasoned politicians claiming meritocracy isn't always at play, while another puts the choice down to plain pragmatism

India's journey a lesson for other countries on digital transformation: IMF

According to the paper, for a diverse country like India, a building block approach provides those closer to the problem with the basic tools to create tailored solutions

IMF warns five-year global growth outlook is weakest since 1990

For 2023, global gross domestic product will likely expand by less than 3%, she said. That's in line with the fund's January forecast of 2.9%

You make the tea or the tea makes you?

Move over Reserve Bank of India. It's the commercial banks, which are creating money and moving the economy

Sri Lanka key rate 2-decade high at 16.5% after clinching IMF loan

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept the standing lending facility rate unchanged at 16.5%, according to a statement on its website on Tuesday

Currency dealers offer $24 bn in loans to Pak to stay away from IMF package

Currency dealers in open market in Pak have offered loans of $24 billion to the government for the next two years to help it stay away from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme

Any major assistance to Lebanon depends on the IMF deal: European Union

A European Union official visiting Lebanon said on Friday that the international body will increase its humanitarian assistance to the crisis-struck country, but that more significant long-term aid depends on reforms and a deal with the International Monetary Fund. EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said at a press conference following his two-day visit that the EU will provide 60 million euros (more than USD 65 million) in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon in 2023, a 20 per cent increase from last year. But he warned that such aid is "not a sustainable long-term solution to the massive financial crisis that has left three-quarters of Lebanon's population of 6 million in poverty. To get out of the crisis, he said, Lebanon needs to elect a president -- which would resolve a presidential vacuum that has dragged on for five months - and to ink a deal with the IMF, which he said would unlock substantial financial support also from the European Union that should help .

Sri Lanka govt debt rose to 115.2% of GDP by the end of 2022: Report

The Sri Lankan government's debt has risen to 115.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the end of 2022 from 104.5 per cent a year earlier, according to the latest national account estimates

IMF wants friendly nations to give funds to cash-strapped Pak before deal

This has led to a delay in concluding talks with the IMF for the program, Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the upper house of parliament on Thursday

Govt taking steps to make India $5 trn economy 'at an early date': FinMin

The government on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that it is taking steps to make India a USD 5 trillion economy earlier than the International Monetary Fund's forecast year of 2026-27. The IMF's World Economic Outlook earlier said the size of the Indian economy will increase from USD 3.2 trillion in 2021-22 to USD 3.5 trillion in 2022-23 and cross USD 5 trillion in 2026-27. "The government has been taking steps to make the country a USD 5 trillion economy at an early date," Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Upper House. Observing that the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 has impacted the world output, increased inflation in several countries and raised uncertainty in the world economy, he said, "lower uncertainty in the global economic outlook will help India become a USD 5 trillion-dollar economy earlier". Some of the important measures taken by the government in the past to boost economic

Is India's economy really 'dangerously close' to Hindu rate of growth?

Economists have a different view on Raghuram Rajan's apprehensions