The meeting coincides with the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraineon February 24, and the war is likely to be high on the agenda.
Unlocking the debt restructuring of troubled economies and increasing aid to Ukraine would feature prominently at the meetingin which the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellenpress to China to “quickly comply” with debt relief for low- and middle-income countries.
The Indian presidency of the bloc comes at a time when the countries South Asian neighbors Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistanhave requested a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the past year due to the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Reuters reported last week that India is drawing up a proposal for G20 countries to help debtor nations calling on lenders, including China, the world’s largest sovereign creditor, to apply a large cut loans.
“At the same time that we think about the debt problems that countries are facing, it is also important to think about what we can do to avoid them,” he told reporters. V Anantha Nageswaran, India’s Chief Economic Adviser, at a press conference ahead of the G20 meeting. “So discussions will be as much about dealing with them before they emerge as after.”
Other items on the agenda are the rules on cryptocurrenciesthe reform of the multilateral development banksthe international taxation and the guarantee of a adequate financing to combat climate changethe officials said.
Regarding international taxation, in recent years it had shown significant progress. However, this week, also in the framework of the G20 meetings, it emerged that the negotiations and the process of implementing a minimum global tax to corporations to prevent them from establishing themselves in tax havens is being delayed mainly by obstacles from the United States, Saudi Arabia and India.
During the event, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans to hold a Virtual meeting with the World Bank, India, China, Saudi Arabia, the United States and other Group of Seven (G7) nations to try to reach agreement on rules, principles and definitionscommon questions about how restructure the debt of countries in difficulties.
The world’s poorest countries currently spend more than a tenth of their export earnings serving the external debt, the highest ratio since 2000, the World Bank said in its annual report on international debt in December. In addition, the expectation is that during 2023 the situation will worsen, partly fueled by the acceleration of interest rates by the central economies.
India also supports the push by the IMF, the World Bank and the United States for the so-called Common Framework – a G20 initiative launched in 2020 to help poor countries delay debt repayments – to be expanded to include countries middle income.
Source: Ambito
