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SL taking over G24 chairmanship; Ravi says recognition for prudent economic management
Sri Lanka is to take over in 2018 the chairmanship of the G24 group representing 24 economically developing countries.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said Sri Lanka had been recognised for its “prudent financial management in the region”.
He was speaking to the Sunday Times on the sidelines of the annual International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings here in the US capital, on Thursday. Sri Lanka is the current vice chairman of the group.
Sri Lanka will also contribute to strengthening the G24, Mr. Karunanayake said,while welcoming the IMF’s initiatives to develop synergies with regional financial arrangements.
He said while respecting the Fund’s institutional arrangements, the G24 was calling for more even-handed IMF surveillance, programme-design, and monitoring better tailored to country-specific circumstances.
The G24 is made up of nine countries in Africa, including South Africa, eight in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Brazil, and seven in Asia including India and Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, earlier on Thursday, the IMF said it was extending the zero interest rates on all Fund concessional facilities until 2018, and thereafter, if interest rates remain low around the world mainly for the benefit of low income countries.
The announcement was made by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at a media conference at IMF headquarters in Washington.
She told reporters that this facility was important for low‑income countries to be able to actually absorb the shocks without necessarily going to the international markets or relying on bilateral lending that could be far more expensive.
The membership, she noted, had responded positively to her call to maintain the overall lending capacity of close to a trillion dollars by extending access to bilateral borrowing agreements.
The new agreements that are being signed this week will run at least through the end of 2019, and will continue to serve as a third line of defence. “As you know the first line of defence is quota, second line is New Arrangements to Borrow, and third line of defence will be those bilateral loans,” she explained.
The IMF had so far received pledges of US$ 344 billion from 26 members and the Fund looked forward to others joining this effort, she added.
She expressed the belief that with strong, comprehensive, consistent and coordinated action, countries could actually lift the economic growth which needed to be more inclusive to resist political dynamics that were not helpful.
She called upon member countries to immediately activate the three‑pronged approach, which included monetary policy, fiscal policy and structural demands.