FM Nirmala Sitharaman, IMF’s Gita Gopinath meet in U.S.

On the eve of the IMF-World Bank spring conference in 2023 in Washington, first deputy manager Gita Gopinath of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) met with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. During the meeting, Sitharaman spoke about various topics, including the vulnerability of the debt.

According to a tweet from the Union Finance Ministry, Sitharaman brought up the IMF’s worries about important economic downside risks. As reported in the World Economic Outlook, “FM Smt.@nsitharaman underscored IMF’s concerns on significant negative risks to the economy, including banking sector stress, rising real interest rates, heavy debt, inflation, geopolitical fragmentation, and faltering growth in China.”

Gopinath received praise from the finance minister for speeding up India’s efforts on the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable in collaboration with the World Bank.

A powerful Indian delegation to the IMF-World Bank spring conference is being led by Sitharaman. She acknowledged the IMF’s contribution to the development of evidence-based policy recommendations during India’s G20 chairmanship.

Gopinath commended the Finance Minister for holding successful conversations that resulted in an agreement on a set of guiding principles and an action plan for crypto assets, translating the February consensus on the need for a globally coordinated policy response on crypto assets.

In an earlier meeting, Sitharaman discussed the global debt crisis and the strengthening of multilateral development banks with her Saudi counterpart, Mohammed Aljadaan. They also talked about how to better execute the Common Framework, how to address global debt distress, and issues with global inflation.