”Act now” – main message of International Monetary Fund’s Annual Meeting
Date
16/10/2012
Over the weekend of 12-14 October, the member countries of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) met in Tokyo in connection with the Annual Meeting of the IMF. The main message from the IMF's Managing Director Christine Lagarde was "act now" and use the breathing space that has been created to implement the necessary reforms.
Just as at recent years' meetings, the debt crisis in Europe was discussed, but this time the focus was also on the fiscal problems in the United States and the declining GDP figures in emerging economies and low-income countries. In the discussions on the global economy, it was observed that a series of policy measures adopted during the spring and summer, primarily by central banks, have led to a slight decrease of unease on the market. The IMF's Managing Director Christine Lagarde's main message was that the countries should "act now" and use the breathing space that has been created to implement the necessary reforms.
Influence and the governance of the IMF were also discussed at the Annual Meetings. It was hoped that the member states would make progress in the discussion on the IMF's quota formula that governs the member states' capital contributions and voting power in the Fund. However, no compromise was reached and the IMF's Board of Governors and the IMFC Deputies were assigned to take action to reach a compromise before the deadline in January 2013.
In conjunction with the Annual Meeting, two new pledges to boost IMF resources were received from Algeria and Brunei. Added to the previously promised contributions from member states of USD 436 billion, these two new contributions mean that the Fund now has credit facilities totalling about USD 461 billion.
The Swedish delegation included Governor Stefan Ingves, Deputy Governor Barbro Wickman-Parak, Finance Minister Anders Borg, Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson and State Secretary Susanne Ackum.
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