IMF Survey: Turkey Gears Up To Host IMF-World Bank Meetings

IMF News, July 10, 2009

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Turkey is preparing to host the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Istanbul in October.
Publication date: July 10, 2009.
The host city will be Congress Valley, located near the Bosphorus.
The host country expects over 13,000 participants to attend the meetings over the course of several days.

The Annual Meetings bring together finance ministers, central bankers, and other top officials from 186 countries.
Every three years, the meeting is held outside Washington, D.C.; Turkey last hosted the gathering in 1955.
Key preparatory activity involves Turkish officials across the Central Bank, Finance Ministry, and Health Ministry coordinating logistics.
The IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee will meet on October 4, and the Development Committee will meet on October 5.
The Annual Meetings themselves follow on October 6 and 7.

Main focus: possible recovery from the global recession and the future of the international financial system.
Top agenda items likely include:
- The state of the global economy and policy responses to the worldwide recession.
- Possible early warning systems to highlight when economies are getting into trouble.
- Possible exit strategies to unwind large stimulus packages.
- Imbalances between large economies and the risk posed to the global economy.
- Examination of the effectiveness of the IMF’s crisis lending.
A program of seminars is planned in the days immediately preceding the annual meetings, covering the best policies to deal with and prevent crises, and the future of the global financial system.
The IMF has begun holding informal meetings with civil society organizations and the private sector and will continue these consultations in advance of the meetings.

The IMF has lent a record $157 billion since the crisis began, with a doubling of concessional lending.
Leaders committed to triple funds available to $750 billion.
The IMF set up a Flexible Credit Line for countries with a solid economic track record; Colombia, Mexico, and Poland have taken advantage of this arrangement but have not yet drawn on the funds.
The IMF provided $1.6 billion in new lending to sub-Saharan Africa by the end of June this year.
Fiscal policy advice highlighted in the crisis: the IMF called for a 2 percent global stimulus, which countries have largely delivered.
The IMF gave low-income countries more flexibility on inflation targets and has factored in higher deficits and spending for the year.

The IMF is committed to reforming its governance to increase the share of dynamic emerging markets and preserve the voice of low income countries.
Quota and voice reforms approved in 2008 need to be formalized.
Once in place, 54 members will receive an increase in their quotas, with some of the largest gains going to China, Korea, India, Brazil, and Mexico.
The G-20 has called for completion of the next step in improving representation for emerging and developing countries by January 2011, with work to start on a new quota formula by October 2009.
How the Fund is financed is part of the reform process; in early July the institution decided to issue bonds for the first time in its history.
China has indicated it will invest up to $50 billion, and Brazil and Russia up to $10 billion each.

IMF Survey: Turkey Gears Up To Host IMF-World Bank Meetings — July 10, 2009