## International Monetary and Financial Committee — Statement by Ms. Karin Keller‑Sutter (Switzerland)

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [International Monetary and Financial Committee — Statement by Ms. Karin Keller‑Sutter (Switzerland)](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/meetings/2026/annual/imfc/switzerland.pdf)

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- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/meetings/2026/annual/imfc/switzerland.pdf.md)
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### Global setting and policy priorities
- Global growth is described as "more resilient than expected but remains sluggish and uneven."
- Identified headwinds and risks:
  - "Spillovers from the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, combined with persistent trade tensions, and significant debt and financial vulnerabilities" that "continue to fuel uncertainty, create economic headwinds, and pose corresponding downside risks."
  - "Rapid and transformative technological innovations, including in artificial intelligence (AI), create both significant opportunities and challenges for members."
- Policy priorities and prescriptions:
  - "Decisive action to strengthen fundamentals, address global challenges, and preserve economic openness is needed to safeguard macroeconomic stability, reinforce resilience, and lift durable growth."
  - "Sustained and credible fiscal adjustment is urgently needed in many countries, to rebuild buffers, contain borrowing costs, and ensure debt sustainability."
  - "Improving the quality of fiscal policy, including spending prioritization, is key for accomplishing fiscal adjustment while limiting negative side effects."
  - "Fiscal support to prevent hardship from shocks, where warranted, should be temporary, well targeted, and ideally budget neutral, while avoiding distortions to price signals."
  - "Central banks should continue to ensure price stability in line with their respective mandates."
  - The Fund "should uphold its advocacy for central bank independence and clear communication."
  - "Sound financial supervision and regulation, including strong capital and liquidity buffers, are key for maintaining the stability of the banking sectors and the global financial system as a whole."
  - Structural reform needs: "productivity-enhancing investments" in infrastructure, skills, and education; "adequate and predictable regulatory arrangements, as well as strong governance and competition"; careful design of pension and healthcare systems to "ensure fiscal sustainability, while delivering fundamental services to the public."

### The Fund’s role at the current juncture
- Surveillance priorities:
  - "Surveillance, both bilateral and multilateral, is the cornerstone of the IMF’s work."
  - "Monetary, fiscal, financial sector, and exchange rate policies must remain the priority topics of surveillance, in line with the Fund’s mandate and expertise."
  - The comprehensive surveillance review (CSR) "has reaffirmed these priorities and established a robust concept of macro-criticality."
  - The Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) review "has emphasized the need for effective and efficient financial surveillance," and "voluntary FSAPs should be granted in an evenhanded manner."
  - Surveillance should be "more focused, risk-based, and cost-effective" and promote "cross-border integration" and "the crucial role of economic openness."
- External imbalances and methodology:
  - The Fund must "continue to provide candid and even-handed advice on excessive external imbalances, both to surplus and deficit countries."
  - Advice should be "grounded in a multilaterally consistent and high-quality analysis that adequately accounts for country-specific factors, including known measurement issues in current account data."
  - It is "crucial for the Fund to continue its engagement with members on the External Balance Assessment framework and to further improve the methodology."
  - The Fund should "gradually move toward a more holistic assessment of external positions."
- Capacity development (CD) and contributions:
  - "CD should remain focused on the Fund’s key areas of expertise, such as domestic revenue mobilization and public financial management."
  - Regional centers highlighted: "Caucasus, Central Asia, and Mongolia Technical Assistance Center (CCAMTAC)" and the forthcoming "Southeast Europe Technical Assistance Center (SEETAC)."
  - Switzerland "is committing CHF 40 million (~USD 50 million) for IMF CD work over the years 2026–30."
  - "The Republic of Kazakhstan will contribute USD 25 million to the CCAMTAC."
  - "Poland joined the group of contributors in 2024."
- Lending:
  - Fund lending "must continue to support members in solving their balance-of-payments problems and restoring their external viability, including debt sustainability, under adequate safeguards."
  - Emphasis on "strong conditionality and high lending standards" and that lending "must also remain catalytic and cognizant of members’ debt-carrying and repayment capacities."
  - Concern about "mounting super-senior debt, notably the risks of crowding out market financing and complicating debt treatments."
  - Support for the "review of program design and conditionality" to make programs "more realistic, resilient, country-specific, and effective."

### Ensuring the effectiveness and financial soundness of the IMF and its trusts
- Financial safeguards and management:
  - "The Fund and its trusts must retain solid finances and adequate reserves, to be able to provide continued and effective support to members."
  - "Preserving a prudent level of precautionary balances as well as vigilant risk management remain crucial."
- Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT):
  - The Constituency "attaches great importance to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) as a key element of the Fund’s support for LICs."
  - "Close cooperation, mainly with the World Bank, remains essential for PRGT programs to be effective."
  - "Switzerland ... is ready to provide assurances on a further contribution to the PRGT by consenting to its share in the Interim Placement Administrative Account being transferred directly to the PRGT Subsidy Account."

### Tackling debt vulnerabilities
- Core messages:
  - "The Fund’s work on debt-related issues remains a priority."
  - "High and increasing debt vulnerabilities are a pressing concern in many countries."
  - Support for efforts to "improve the effectiveness of coordinated case-by-case debt treatments, enhance debt transparency and debt management, and strengthen the Fund’s debt policies and analytical tools."
- Debt sustainability analyses (DSAs):
  - DSAs "must err on the side of caution, flag debt stress and sustainability risks in time, and contain the risk of doing 'too little, too late' regarding potential debt treatments."
  - Strong macroeconomic policies and reforms, including "domestic resource mobilization and public financial management," are "necessary elements of a comprehensive approach to tackling debt vulnerabilities."

### Cross-cutting issues
- Artificial intelligence and digital finance:
  - "The Fund needs to further strengthen its understanding of relevant AI developments and associated opportunities and risks for members."
  - Fund work on AI "should focus aptly on macro-critical issues within its mandate and areas of expertise and be aligned with members’ needs."
  - Continued Fund work on digital finance is supported, including analysis and advice on "the macrofinancial implications of crypto assets and stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and other financial innovations."
- Climate:
  - The Fund "should continue promoting macroeconomic resilience against climate risks."
  - "The agreed climate strategy anchors the Fund’s work in this area and should be implemented across all its activities."
- Coordination:
  - On cross-cutting issues, "close coordination and cooperation with—and, where appropriate, deference to—other relevant international institutions and fora is called for, to ensure a sensible division of labor and avoid duplications of efforts."

### IMF resources and governance
- Quotas and representation:
  - The Constituency "supports a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF at the center of the global financial safety net."
  - "The adoption of the package under the Sixteenth General Review of Quotas remains the main priority."
  - Support for "quota share adjustments for the most underrepresented members, based on the existing quota formula."
  - Quota share adjustments "should aim to better reflect members’ relative positions in the world economy, while protecting the quota shares of the poorest members."
  - Reiteration that "a member’s relative position in the world economy is determined both by GDP and by non-GDP elements and variables—quota shares and the quota formula should continue to reflect this."
  - Emphasis that "any quota or governance reform" needs to be "acceptable to a large majority of the membership."
- Institutional quality and staff:
  - "The quality of its work as well as its integrity and reputation must remain impeccable."
  - "Highly skilled and motivated Fund staff are key to achieving this."
  - The Fund "needs to be exemplary in terms of efficient procedures, practices, and budgetary prudence, as well as in maintaining a strong balance sheet."
  - "The reallocation of resources to meet evolving priorities and needs should remain a core element of the budget process."

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/meetings/2026/annual/imfc/switzerland.pdf_