Global Resilience, Sustainable Recovery Are IMF Work Priorities

Focus on sustainable recovery, making global economy more resilient

Stress also on jobs and growth, deficits and debt, stronger financial systems

Key priority is to place global economy on sustained, balanced growth path

Against the backdrop of a global economy that has avoided the worst, but is still in a fragile and uneven recovery, the work program discussed by the IMF Executive Board on June 3 is designed to help place the global economy on sustained and balanced growth path.

The Board’s biannual discussion of its work program focused on translating the policy priorities laid out in the Global Policy Agenda into a specific action plan for the 188-member institution over the next six to twelve months. The IMF’s Global Policy Agenda was presented by Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the recent IMF–World Bank Spring Meetings.

In addition to assisting members with identifying emerging risks and designing calibrated policies to encourage stronger and sustainable growth, the work program emphasizes the need to address medium-term structural issues to restore the world economy’s resilience—strengthening financial systems, addressing high deficits and debt, supporting growth and jobs, and narrowing global imbalances and anticipating spillovers.

IMF Survey spoke with Siddharth Tiwari, Director of the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review Department, about the key components of the work program.

IMF Survey: At the 2013 Spring Meetings, the emphasis was on a better balance of monetary, fiscal, and structural strategies. How is this reflected in the work program?

Tiwari: At the time of the Spring Meetings, it was recognized that even though sentiment had improved, growth and jobs were still lagging in many countries. New risks were also emerging because of limited progress in addressing legacy issues of the crisis. Against this background, policies that balanced the need to support growth with the need to overcome weak fundamentals, be it fiscal, financial, business or household, were needed. The current work program focuses on these issues.

• For the euro area, the Fund’s analysis will seek to promote a common understanding on options for fiscal and financial sector repair and reform, as well as growth-promoting structural reforms.

• In other advanced economies, especially the United States and Japan, we will be analyzing the implications of unconventional monetary policies, while taking into account their growth and structural reform...