Minister urges IMF to expand financing for poor countries

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) needs to expand its financing for poor and vulnerable countries, said Brazil’s Economy Minister Paulo Guedes during a plenary meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), in Washington. He mentioned the need for new financing lines with accessible conditions, aimed at more fragile countries not yet eligible for the fund’s programs.

Guedes urged advanced economies to increase their contribution to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) and lend to more vulnerable countries. The minister also fostered the creation of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), to finance structural economic reforms in developing, low-income, or market-restricted countries.

Among the chief conclusions drawn at the IMFC plenary is the need to tackle inequalities, sharpened as they were during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to promote vaccination to curb the spread of the disease. Committee members agreed to prioritize expenditures surrounding health care, the protection of the more vulnerable, and the delivery of vaccines, health goods, and medical supplies crucial to developing countries.

The countries making up the IMF committee also agreed to promote short-term measures to check the advance of the public debt in the countries that spent the most to fight the pandemic. The governments, however, should consider promoting an agenda directed at the sustainable development and social inclusion in the medium term, the participants underscored.

OECD

At his meeting with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, also in Washington, Guedes argued that Brazil meets the requirements to join the group, which gathers the planet’s most industrialized economies. The assembly was held Wednesday (13), but was not announced until Thursday (14) by the Ministry of the Economy.

Guedes went on to tell the organization’s representative that Brazil is now adhered to 100 of the 247 OECD legal tools, and asked for the addition of 46 tools. The country, the minister stated, is intent in adapting itself to the norms linked to the improvement of the environment in order to increase the offer of environmental services.

In Guedes’s view, the acceptance of Brazil as a full member would bring investment to the country, but would also prove beneficial to the OECD, which will have the contribution of an emerging economy.

If Brazil’s admission is approved, the country would become the only nation that is simultaneously a member of the OECD, the G20 (the globe’s top 20 economies), and Brics (including the five biggest emerging economies).