By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Global creditors, debtor nations and international financial institutions agreed on Wednesday to improve data sharing, set a clearer timetable and take other steps Measures to initiate debt restructuring
World Bank, IMF and India 20 (G20) Incumbent banks of major economies Long, issued a joint statement after the first official meeting of the new Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable held on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings in Washington.
However, the statement did not mention any commitment by China, the world’s largest bilateral creditor, to speed up the restructuring process.
Beijing is ready to drop demands for multilateral development banks to share in debt restructuring losses, in part in exchange for earlier debt repayments from the IMF and World Bank to countries receiving debt processing, according to Reuters. Sustainability analysis.
But the statement only included the agency’s transactional portion to share more information more quickly and facilitate a “net positive flow” of concessional financing in quantitative restructuring cases at development banks.
“Discussions focused on actions that could now be taken to speed up the debt restructuring process and make it more efficient, including under the G20 common framework,” the statement said. A common framework, though IMF strategy chief Ceyla Pazarbasioglu said on Wednesday she hoped to hear “good news” on Zambia’s case next week.
U.S. officials and others blame the delay on China, now the world’s largest bilateral creditor, with private sector creditors reluctant to join.
A financing guarantee for Sri Lanka, a middle-income country not eligible for the G20 framework, could provide new impetus to advancing these individual cases.
Debt roundtable participants agreed on the importance of urgently improving information sharing on macroeconomic forecasts and debt sustainability assessments in debt resolution cases, the statement said.
It said the IMF and World Bank would promptly issue staff guidance on data sharing at each stage of the restructuring process to address concerns expressed by China and other creditors about the lack of sufficient information dissatisfied.
Participants also discussed the role of multilateral development banks (MDBs) in the debt restructuring process by providing “net positive flows” of concessional financing and welcomed the implicit debt provided by the World Bank’s IDA Relief is armed with low- or zero-interest loans and grants.
Participants agreed to organize a workshop in the coming weeks on how to assess and enforce comparability of debt, processing arrears and restructuring debt coverage, including domestic debt.
“This work will also help in clarifying a potential timetable for accelerated debt restructuring,” the statement said.
The Presidency will continue to work closely with other partners to further support the international community in addressing the current debt challenges.
Separately, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said Japan, France and India would announce a new platform for creditors to coordinate Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring, adding that it would be “very important” if China joined the effort OK”.
