BENGALURU, Feb. 25 (Reuters) – There are some disagreements over debt restructuring for distressed economies, the International Monetary Fund chief said Saturday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, adding that banning private cryptocurrencies would be an option. must be.
India’s G20 presidency comes at a time when South Asian neighbors Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan are in urgent need of IMF funds due to an economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine.
China, the world’s largest bilateral creditor, on Friday urged G20 countries to conduct a fair, objective and in-depth analysis of the causes of global debt problems as calls grow for lenders to make a major get a haircut or accept losses on loans.
“On debt restructuring, although there are still differences of opinion, we now have the global roundtable on sovereign debt, which takes into account all public and private creditors,” IMF director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters after the roundtable she co-hosted with the Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presided. .
Latest updates
View 2 more stories
“We just completed a session where it was clear that there is a commitment to bridging differences for the benefit of countries.”
Aside from debt restructuring, regulating cryptocurrencies is another priority area for India, which Georgieva agreed with.
“We need to distinguish between central bank digital currencies that are backed by the state and stablecoins, and crypto-assets that are privately issued,” Georgieva said.
“There has to be a very strong push for regulation… if regulation fails, if you’re slow to do it, then we shouldn’t get off the table and ban those assets because they could pose a risk to financial stability. “
Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Sarita Chaganti Singh and Shivangi Acharya; writing by Sudipto Ganguly; Edited by Krishna N. Das
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Principles of Trust.
Leave a Reply