Category: FINANCIAL STABILITY

GDP Center Round-Up: 2024 International Monetary Fund/World Bank Group Annual Meetings

By Tim Hirschel-Burns The 2024 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group Annual Meetings will take place from October 21-27 in Washington, D.C. amid severe debt distress, lagging efforts to align global economic governance with modern realities, and a ticking clock to keep global climate and development goals alive. Several policy issues with important implications for […]

The International Monetary Fund and Deforestation: Analyzing the Environmental Consequences of Conditional Lending

International financial institutions (IFIs) have in recent years increased the volume of their financing in an effort to support national and global policy challenges—yet surprisingly little is known about the environmental impacts of their finance. A new technical paper from the Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF investigates the environmental implications of the […]

It’s the IMF’s Turn: An Evolution for Development and Climate Change Goals

By Marilou Uy and Rishikesh Ram Bhandary Policymakers, especially from the Global South, now agree that achieving both climate goals and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will require reforming the international financial architecture. While the World Bank’s ‘evolution’ process that kickstarted at the 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Annual Meetings reflects a […]

IMF 2030: A Transformative Action Agenda for Achieving Climate and Development Goals

With just six years until 2030, there is an urgent need to unlock investments and mobilize affordable climate finance in a fiscally sound and financially stable manner. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a vital role to play, and proposals to reform the international financial architecture – whether the Bridgetown Initiative, the Paris Pact for […]

Room to Grow: Integrating Climate Change in Debt Sustainability Analyses for Low-Income Countries

Developing countries need to invest heavily to transform their economies to achieve sustainable development and address climate change, but they are falling behind in the shift to clean energy, enhancing adaptation and resilience, addressing loss and damage, and restoring nature.  To meet these policy goals, debt sustainability analyses (DSAs) conducted by the International Monetary Fund […]

From Surcharges to the Debt-Climate Nexus: A Think20 Policy Brief Roundup

By Akanksha Goyal The Think20 (T20) is an engagement group of the Group of 20 (G20) that seeks to convene think tanks and research centers from G20 members, guest countries and organizations in order to provide evidence-based research to support policymaker decisions in the G20. As a busy fall policy season kicks off this month […]

Bringing Buybacks Back: A Known Debt Restructuring Tool with a Principled Twist

By Daniel Bradlow, Marina Zucker-Marques and Kevin P. Gallagher Many developing countries are experiencing what the World Bank has termed the “silent” sovereign debt crisis. It is silent because the international community has seemingly been hoping the creeping crisis will resolve itself on its own without ambitious intervention. Fifty-four countries are spending more than 10 […]

Reforming the IMF Surcharge Rate Policy to Avoid Procyclical Lending

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) levies surcharges, or extra fees, on member countries that either draw “substantial” amounts of IMF credit to mitigate the balance of payments constraints or maintain their credit exposure with the institution for sufficiently long periods. Reportedly designed to discourage the overuse of Fund resources and ensure the IMF’s financial soundness, […]