IMF Flags Obstacles To Debt Restructuring, Says Crypto Ban Should Be An Option

[ad_1]

BENGALURU, Feb 25 (Reuters) – There are disagreements over the debt restructuring of struggling economies, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on the sidelines of a G20 meeting on Saturday, adding that banning cryptocurrencies private should be an option.

India’s G20 Presidency comes at a time when South Asian neighbors Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan are seeking urgent IMF funds due to an economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and war. Russian-Ukrainian.

China, the world’s largest bilateral creditor, on Friday urged G20 countries to conduct a fair, objective and thorough analysis of the causes of global debt problems as clamor grows for lenders to take a large haircut or agree to loan losses.

“On debt restructuring, although there are still disagreements, we now have the global roundtable on sovereign debt taking into account all public and private creditors,” the director general of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, after the roundtable she co-chaired with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. .

Latest updates

See 2 more stories

“We have just completed a session in which it was clear that there is a commitment to bridging differences for the benefit of countries.”

Besides debt restructuring, cryptocurrency regulation is another priority area for India, which Georgieva agreed with.

“We need to distinguish between central bank digital currencies that are backed by government and stablecoins, and crypto assets that are issued by the private sector,” Georgieva said.

“There must be a very strong push for regulation…if regulation fails, if you delay doing it, we shouldn’t take the banning of these assets off the table because they can create a risk to financial stability. .”

Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Sarita Chaganti Singh and Shivangi Acharya; written by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Krishna N. Das

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[ad_2]