According to an IMF official on Thursday, a new sovereign debt roundtable will be convened on April 3 by the IMF, World Bank, and India, the current president of the Group of 20 major economies, with the purpose of speeding up work on debt relief for countries in need.
The deputies’ gathering will be preceded by a meeting of principals on the perimeters of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings in Washington, for which a date has not yet been fixed, according to the official.
The summit takes place in the middle of continued delays in negotiating debt relief deals for Zambia, Ghana, and Ethiopia, which are being blamed on China, the world’s largest bilateral creditor, by US officials and others.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will make a trip to China on Friday through March 30 to meet China’s new leadership team, which includes Premier Li Qiang and Vice Premier He Lifeng, who substituted Liu He as China’s top economic official.
IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said the upcoming meetings will build on the progress made by the roundtable in uniting creditors and debtor countries to discuss methods to accelerate the debt restructuring process.
Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia are at distinct stages of the process, but debt specialists say China’s commitment to offer financing assurances for Sri Lanka could extend a new impetus for progress in those three countries.
IMF officials are in Lusaka, Zambia, from now until April 5 to study its economic reforms and remove any obstacles to the IMF’s board’s prompt consideration of the first review of Zambia’s new funding package authorized in August, according to Kozack.
She urged Zambia’s official creditors, including China, to “reach agreement on a debt treatment in line with the financing assurances that they provided in July 2022” and expressed optimism that a “suitable agreement” would be reached soon.
She stated that the IMF was completing technical work in order to prepare for meetings on a prospective program with Ethiopia.
As per Kozack, IMF officials were also working closely with Ghana, which is requesting the financing assurances required for the IMF to move ahead with a staff agreement made in December on a three-year $3 billion lending program.
“We’re calling on bilateral creditors to support Ghana’s effort to restore debt sustainability, form an official creditor committee and deliver the necessary financing assurances as soon as possible,” she added.