Chair’s Statement Fifty-Second Meeting of the IMFC - Mr. Mohammed Aljadaan, Minister for Finance of Saudi Arabia
IMF News, October 17, 2025
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- Published: October 17, 2025
Global economic assessment
- The global economy is "undergoing a profound transformation" with "elevated uncertainty."
- Growth has been "resilient, but strains are emerging."
- Disinflation is expected to continue, "with notable variations across countries."
- Risks to the outlook are "tilted to the downside" in a context of:
- "low growth"
- "high debt"
- "more frequent extreme weather events and natural disasters"
- "trade tensions"
- "excessive global imbalances"
- "Ongoing wars and conflicts continue to impose a heavy humanitarian toll, with large economic costs and significant negative spillovers." The statement stresses that "ending wars and conflicts and securing lasting peace around the world remains essential for sustainable growth and long-term stability."
Policy commitments and macro-financial stability
- Commitments:
- "We will adopt sound policies that foster confidence, build resilience, and safeguard macroeconomic and financial stability."
- "Strong economic institutions, notably independent central banks, remain essential for policy credibility and trust."
- "Central banks remain strongly committed to maintaining price stability, in line with their respective mandates, and will continue to adjust their policies in a data dependent and well-communicated manner."
- Fiscal framework and public finances:
- "We will appropriately calibrate our fiscal policy and, where needed, deepen our pivot toward fiscal adjustments to ensure debt sustainability and rebuild buffers."
- Fiscal adjustments "should be anchored in a credible medium-term strategy" and involve:
- "mobilizing domestic resources"
- "improving spending efficiency"
- "supporting growth-enhancing public and private investments and productivity gains"
- "preserving social cohesion"
- Financial stability and innovation:
- Continue to "adhere to international standards and closely monitor and tackle financial vulnerabilities and risks to financial stability, including by strengthening surveillance of systemic risks stemming from AI, non-bank financial institutions and digital assets, while harnessing the benefits of financial and technological innovation."
- Structural reforms:
- "Advance structural reforms to improve the business environment, streamline regulation where needed, fight corruption, and mobilize innovation and technology adoption."
Debt vulnerabilities, low-income and vulnerable countries
- Support for countries undertaking reforms and addressing debt vulnerabilities, with "specific attention to the challenges faced by low-income and vulnerable countries, including fragile and conflict-affected states and small developing states."
- Calls on the IMF to "further deepen its work on debt vulnerabilities in low-income countries, including policy options to address them."
- Welcomes "the progress made on debt treatments under the G20 Common Framework (CF) and beyond."
- Remains committed to addressing global debt vulnerabilities "in an effective, comprehensive, and systematic manner," including:
- "further stepping up the CF’s implementation in a predictable, timely, orderly, and coordinated manner"
- "enhanced debt transparency from all stakeholders, including private creditors"
- further progress at the "Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable"
- Supports the IMF and World Bank three-pillar approach to assist countries with "sustainable debt but high debt service pressures," including helping them:
- "implement strong growth-enhancing reforms"
- "mobilize domestic resources"
- "attract private capital"
- "We look forward to the review of the Low-Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework (LIC-DSF)."
IMF surveillance, program design, and institutional work
- Welcomes the Managing Director’s "Global Policy Agenda."
- Supports surveillance focused on "tailored and candid advice to help countries strengthen economic resilience, safeguard macroeconomic and financial stability, ensure debt sustainability, promote sustainable growth, and achieve an orderly rebalancing of the global economy."
- Looks forward to ongoing reviews and workstreams:
- "Comprehensive Surveillance Review" to set future surveillance priorities and modalities
- "Review of Financial Sector Assessment Programs" to keep financial surveillance aligned with evolving financial stability risks
- "further work to strengthen the analysis of the drivers of excessive global imbalances"
- "Review of Program Design and Conditionality" to strengthen effectiveness of IMF-supported programs
- "Review of the Short-Term Liquidity Line"
- Calls for "timely and full implementation of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust reforms to ensure its self-sustained lending capacity."
Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN) and international cooperation
- Welcomes recent stocktaking of the Global Financial Safety Net, including discussions on "enhancing collaboration between the IMF and Regional Financing Arrangements."
- Reaffirms commitment to "a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF at the center of the GFSN."
- Notes progress on domestic approvals for consent to the quota increase under the "16th General Review of Quotas" and looks forward to finalizing this process "with no further delay."
- States that realignment in quota shares should "aim at better reflecting members’ relative positions in the world economy, while protecting the quota shares of the poorest members."
- Advancing work on "developing principles to guide future discussions on IMF quota and governance by the 2026 Spring Meetings, as called for in the Diriyah Declaration."
Capacity development, staff, and representation
- Supports efforts to "further strengthen capacity development (CD), in line with the 2024 CD Strategy, and to ensure the sustainability of CD financing."
- Advocates for "a flexible and tailored delivery, well integrated with policy advice and program design."
- Welcomes IMF streamlining efforts to "deliver efficiency gains and best value to the membership."
- Reiterates appreciation for staff’s "high-quality work and dedication under the IMF’s merit-based system," and encourages efforts to improve:
- "regional and women’s representation within staff positions"
- "women’s representation at the Executive Board and in Board leadership positions"
Procedural and meeting information
- Document identified as "Press Release No. 25/348."
- Date: "October 17, 2025."
- Press contact listed:
- PRESS OFFICER: Wafa Amr
- Phone: +1 202 623-7100
- Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
- @IMFSpokesperson
- "We reaffirm our April 2021 exchange rate commitments."
- "Our next meeting is expected to be held in April 2026."
- Meeting: "Fifty-Second Meeting of the IMFC" held "Friday, October 17, 2025, Washington, D. C."
- Chair: "Mohammed Aljadaan, Minister of Finance, Saudi Arabia"
- Managing Director: "Kristalina Georgieva"
- Attendance includes a roster of Members, Alternates, and Observers (full attendance list recorded in the statement).
Source: Chair’s Statement Fifty-Second Meeting of the IMFC - Mr. Mohammed Aljadaan, Minister for Finance of Saudi Arabia; October 17, 2025.