Sitharaman, Gita Gopinath meet in US, both discuss debt vulnerabilities

Washington: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday had a meeting with Gita Gopinath, the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), during which they discussed debt vulnerabilities and other issues.

Sitharaman is leading a high-powered Indian delegation to attend the annual Spring Meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.

Sitharaman congratulated Gopinath for accelerating India’s work on the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable along with the World Bank and reiterated India's commitment to foster efforts to address growing debt vulnerabilities, the finance ministry said in a tweet after the meeting.

During the meeting, the finance minister noted IMF's concerns on key downside risks to the economy including financial sector stress, rising real interest rates, elevated debt, inflation, geo-political fragmentation, and faltering growth in China, as highlighted in World Economic Outlook World Economy Outlook.

Gopinath congratulated the minister on the fruitful discussions that translated the February consensus on the need for a globally coordinated policy response on Crypto Assets into an agreed set of guiding principles and an action plan on crypto assets, the ministry said in a tweet.

Sitharaman acknowledged IMF's support to the G20 Presidency of India in the form of inputs towards developing evidence-based policy guidance.

FM meets Saudi counterpart; G20 agenda discussed

Nirmala Sitharaman also had a meeting with her counterpart from Saudi Arabia Mohammed Aljadaan during which they discussed the global debt crisis and strengthening of the multilateral development banks, an Indian initiative under its G-20 presidency.

"H.E. Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and I discussed the #G20 agenda, and the progress made," Aljadaan said in a tweet after the meeting held on the sidelines of the annual Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank here.

"Among other things, the two leaders discussed the World Bank Evolution Roadmap and the Expert Group on Strengthening the Multilateral Development Banks constituted by the G20 India Presidency," the finance ministry said in a tweet.

Inputs from PTI