Brown and Köhler hail successful meeting

• Pages: 123-125

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Following are edited excerpts from a press conference held after the meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) on April 20 in Washington, DC. Participating were Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the U.K. Exchequer and Chair of the IMFC, and Horst Köhler, IMF Managing Director.

BROWN: I am delighted to be here with the Managing Director,Horst Köhler. I just want to draw your attention to a number of decisions made by the IMFC.

First, on the world economy, when we met last autumn, there was widespread pessimism about the global economy, with fears of a global slowdown or even a global recession. Thanks to decisive action by policymakers around the world and the strengthening of international cooperation over the past six months, these fears have not been realized.

We agreed that prospects for the world economy had improved markedly. Indeed, the challenge now is for governments to help foster the global recovery that is under way. This will require continued vigilance and a further strengthening of medium-term policy frameworks, both to improve prospects for sustainable growth and stability and to reduce vulnerabilities. The committee underscores the importance of stability in oil markets, at prices reasonable for consumers and producers.

So the committee meeting today is more optimistic than before about the prospects for recovery, while always determined to remain vigilant about the risks.

We also had a useful discussion on a second issue-reforms to the international financial system.

We discussed measures that would be needed to step up the reforms to the crisis prevention framework based on agreed codes and standards.We are agreed on a number of ways in which the IMF could strengthen its surveillance role, including through more comprehensive and candid assessments.We have also encouraged the IMF to continue to examine the legal, institutional, and procedural aspects of both the statutory and a contractual approach to crisis resolution.

I think the key point on which we are all now agreed is that individual proposals in this area of reform cannot be taken in isolation-we are talking about a wider package of reform to create an international financial system for the twenty-first century that recognizes the new realities of open, not sheltered, economies; international, not national, capital markets; and global, not local, competition.We are agreed that all governments, international financial institutions, and the private sector must accept their responsibilities to make this system work for both stability and growth.

Now the third issue that we discussed was the next steps to be taken to ensure that the 2015 Millennium Development Goals can be achieved.We thank the Managing Director and, indeed, the President of the World Bank for the work that they put into the success of the Monterrey conference and acknowledge the commitments made by the European Union and U.S. governments last month to increase development aid.

There is now, I think, an emerging consensus that we must go further, that development assistance must be made available as a...