Nirmala Sitharaman meets Gita Gopinath, discusses debt vulnerabilities, other issues in US

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

“Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman met with Ms @GitaGopinath, FDMD, International Monetary Fund @IMFNews, on the sidelines of the IMF-WB #SpringMeetings 2023 in Washington DC, today," the finance ministry tweeted.

The finance minister 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 with Gopinath, FM Sitharaman 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.

Gopinath also congratulated the finance 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.

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

The Finance Minister on Tuesday also met 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.

"Among other things, the two leaders discussed about the World Bank Evolution Roadmap and the Expert Group on Strengthening the Multilateral Development Banks constituted by the #G20India Presidency," the finance ministry said in a tweet.

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