Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development
IMF News, April 22, 2025
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- Published: April 22, 2025
Humanitarian crises and aid
- Severe humanitarian suffering from global crises and conflicts; increasing scale and complexity impacting frontline states, especially in developing areas.
- Concern over tightening global aid budgets amid escalating needs and potential delays in delivery of critical assistance.
- Recommendations:
- Maintain existing aid commitments.
- Uphold the integrity of humanitarian action.
- Provide predictable, needs-based, and principled humanitarian support to restore stability, preserve development gains, and enable early recovery.
- Ensure multilateral support for recovery, reconstruction, and long-term development.
Global economic outlook and trade policy risks
- Global growth:
- Expected to moderate in 2025 and remain steady in 2026, but at a level insufficient to accelerate progress towards sustainable economic development.
- Risks from tariff hikes and trade policy shifts:
- Tariff hikes would likely lower real wages and disrupt global supply chains.
- Disproportionate impact on Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) and Low-Income Countries (LICs) due to limited diversification and dependence on imported inputs.
- Financial and inflation impacts:
- Impact of tariff measures on inflation remains uncertain.
- Many EMDEs have experienced rising bond yields, capital flows reversals, and depreciating currencies following tariff hikes.
- Tighter financial conditions could exacerbate external, fiscal, and debt vulnerabilities, jeopardizing financial stability and hindering economic progress.
Domestic policy priorities
- Domestic policymaking is the first line of defense.
- Fiscal policy guidance:
- Safeguard fiscal sustainability and rebuild buffers.
- Remain growth-friendly.
- Catalyze public and private investments toward productivity-enhancing reforms.
- Monetary policy guidance:
- Central banks should maintain price and financial stability in line with their mandates.
- Adjust policies in a data-dependent manner.
- Structural reforms:
- Sustainably raise productivity and growth.
- Strengthen social safety nets.
- Design reforms consistent with country-specific circumstances.
IMF role, quota reforms, and governance
- Welcome IMF commitment to its core mandate as the center of the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN) and support for the Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda.
- Calls to action:
- Accelerate domestic processes to give effect to quota increases under the 16th General Review of Quotas (GRQ).
- Continue dialogue on quota reforms and rapid progress on approaches for further quota realignment, including a new quota formula under the 17th GRQ.
- Ensure realignment reflects members' relative economic weights and does not come at the expense of EMDEs and LICs.
- Strengthen voice and representation of developing countries in IMF governance.
IMF policy reviews and SDR mobilization
- Support for IMF reviews and enhancements:
- Joint World Bank-IMF Low-Income Countries Debt Sustainability Framework.
- Capacity development priorities and financing.
- Program design and conditionalities.
- Engagement on macro-critical challenges.
- Comprehensive Surveillance Review expected to strengthen monitoring with attention to spillovers from systemically important countries.
- Special Drawing Rights (SDR) concerns:
- Limited progress in operationalizing rechanneling of SDRs through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).
- Call for innovative solutions to better leverage SDRs for global challenges while protecting reserve asset characteristics.
- Mention of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty in SDR context.
Liquidity access, crisis prevention, and surveillance
- EMDE vulnerabilities:
- EMDEs with limited access to affordable short-term and crisis-related liquidity likely to become more vulnerable.
- Recommendations:
- Address imbalances in liquidity access.
- Strengthen crisis prevention and response capabilities.
- Enhance existing financial safety nets and coordination with Regional Financing Arrangements.
- Intensify surveillance, technical assistance, and policy advice on internal and external stability.
- Prioritize research and policy recommendations on managing capital flow volatility, safeguarding balance sheets, and mitigating exchange rate risks.
World Bank Group reforms and lending capacity
- Progress noted on WBG Evolution Roadmap:
- Establishment of the WBG Guarantee Platform.
- Introduction of the Climate Resilient Debt Clause.
- Key deliverables and actions urged:
- Operationalize the Framework for Financial Incentives.
- Deploy hybrid capital instruments.
- Expand portfolio guarantees.
- Operationalize the Livable Planet Fund.
- Prompt action on IBRD stage 2 loan pricing adjustments to complement stage 1 pricing reforms.
- Expected outcome:
- Deliver the expected $150 billion additional lending capacity to enhance WBG’s ability to end extreme poverty, promote shared prosperity, reduce inequality, and address global challenges.
- Additional requests:
- Support investment in physical and human development, private capital mobilization, and policies fostering economic transformation for job creation.
- Anticipation of a revised Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) Strategy.
MDBs, IDA21, and MDB reform implementation
- IDA21:
- The 21st replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA21) provides vital financing; call for timely effectiveness and operationalization.
- MDB reform priorities:
- Faster progress on G20 Independent Experts Group recommendations, including local currency lending, domestic capital market reforms, de-risking private sector investment, and capital increases across the WBG and MDB system.
- Swift progress on the WBG 2025 Shareholding Review in line with the Lima Principles to address misalignment, strengthen voice and representation, enhance IBRD legitimacy, and ensure equitable voting power.
- Commendation of the G20 South Africa Presidency for engagement on the G20 MDBs Reform Roadmap.
- Need for robust monitoring and reporting mechanisms to assess progress.
Debt challenges and debt-management reforms
- Ongoing challenges:
- High debt burdens and rising debt service costs undermine countries’ capacity to finance development.
- Commendations and calls:
- Welcome progress under the Common Framework (CF) and the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable.
- Call for improvements in CF implementation to ensure predictable, timely, orderly, and coordinated results with full participation of all creditor classes.
- Further reforms requested to promote sustainable debt management practices, enhance debt transparency, and improve country-risk assessments by credit rating agencies.
- Request IMF and WBG assistance for countries with sustainable debt positions facing short-term liquidity challenges.
Climate finance and energy transition
- Need to accelerate climate action with expedited financial commitments.
- Principles and priorities:
- Concerted, equitable climate action based on national circumstances and priorities, considering common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
- Focus areas: adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage, biodiversity, and protection of carbon sinks.
- Support for WBG’s expanded focus on all energy sources to meet development objectives.
- Financing and instruments:
- Call for increased grant and concessional financing tailored to adaptation needs of developing countries.
- Urge developed countries to fulfill existing pledges on climate finance and transition support.
- Promote innovative financial instruments: green and climate related bonds, blended finance mechanisms, and risk-sharing tools, including guarantees.
- Event:
- Expectation that the 30th Conference of Parties (CoP 30) will strengthen multilateral cooperation on global goals and funding strategies.
Domestic resource mobilization, tax cooperation, and trade
- Emphasis on domestic resource mobilization and multilateral cooperation on tax reforms and trade policies.
- Support and engagement:
- Welcome ongoing work of the IMF/WBG Joint Domestic Resource Mobilization Initiative.
- Look forward to the forthcoming United Nations Financing for Development Conference.
- Support for multilateral collaboration on illicit financial flows and tax base erosion, and constructive engagement in the G20-OECD Inclusive Framework and UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.
- Call for a fair, open, and transparent multilateral trading system centered around the World Trade Organization (WTO).
- Strengthen collaboration between governments, the WTO, and the Bretton Woods institutions to safeguard global economic stability and cooperation.
- Acknowledge the role of the OPEC Declaration of Cooperation in safeguarding oil market stability.
Meeting logistics and participants
- Meetings:
- Ministers held their one hundred and thirteenth meeting in Washington, D.C. on April 22, 2025.
- Deputies held their one hundred and twenty-fifth meeting on April 21, 2025.
- Chair and Vice-Chairs:
- Chair: Pablo Quirno, Secretary of Finance, Argentina.
- First Vice-Chair: Olawale Edun, Minister of Finance, Nigeria.
- Second Vice‑Chair: Muhammad Aurangzeb, Minister of Finance, Pakistan.
- Special guests and senior attendees included:
- Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.
- Anna Bjerde, Managing Director of Operations, World Bank Group.
- Patrick Achi, Former Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, and External Advisor to the Bretton Woods at 80 Initiative.
- Press contact:
- PRESS OFFICER:
- Phone: +1 202 623-7100
- Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
- @IMFSpokesperson
Communiqué, April 22, 2025, Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development