“This increases the chances of a soft landing for the global economy,” he added, referring to the prospect of reducing inflation through interest rate increases while avoiding a recession.
Georgieva also called on member countries to “reinforce” funding levels by increasing the fees they pay.
Expectation for announcements
Both the World Bank and the FM are aware of the expectation they generate, particularly regarding the climate crisis after the criticism received for their alleged lack of involvement.
Another issue that will attract attention in the Moroccan city of Marrakech (center-south) is the governance of both institutions.
The first announcements could come from the World Bank, whose president, Ajay Banga, defended the idea of loans at preferential rates for emerging countries and an increase in debt capacity from 100,000 to 125,000 million dollars in 10 years.
But “discussions are still ongoing, we should not expect big announcements,” Danny Scull of the E3G think tank told AFP.
The main novelty in both financial institutions could be the distribution of quotas, modified in favor of low-income or emerging countries, which would increase their possibilities of indebtedness to the WB and the IMF.
Both the Fund and the Bank know that they are expected to take a step, but they have been saying for a year that they cannot act alone.
During the campaign for his election as president of the World Bank, Banga strove to involve the private sector in order to accelerate the financing of projects in Southern countries.
On Monday, in its annual Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR), the IMF estimated that a dramatic increase in investments is needed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Highly indebted countries
Not everyone agrees that so much attention is paid to the climate.
Several countries, mainly African, believe that the eradication of poverty and aid to nations immersed in a debt crisis should take precedence over financing the climate transition.
More than twenty countries are close to or already suffering from debt overhang in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank recalled on Wednesday. We must add Egypt, which has an IMF aid plan, and Tunisia, where negotiations have begun.
The president of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rebeca Grynspan, regretted on Wednesday the slow pace of negotiations on indebted countries.
“I would like the issue of debt to be raised in the debates (…), it is an important problem,” he insisted, at a time when almost half of humanity lives in countries that spend more on paying their debt. than in education or health.
African countries could achieve a third place on the WB board of directors during the Marrakesh meetings, an opportunity to make themselves heard more strongly.
The IMF will do the same, assured Georgieva, who said she “impatiently hopes that our members will validate” the creation of a third position on the board of directors for the continent.
“There is a debate about how the continent should reach an agreement and how it should happen, but importantly it means a stronger voice for Africa,” he told AFP.
Rebecca Thissen, of the Climate Action Network, considers this insufficient. For her, the essential thing would be to make them “more democratic and more transparent” instead of maintaining “control of the countries of the North, particularly the United States.”
Since the countries are shareholders, their participation is proportional to GDP, which gives greater weight to the United States and Europe despite the ongoing rebalancing in favor of large emerging countries.
Next week’s meetings take place in a tense geopolitical climate, particularly between China and the United States, which complicates matters and could delay reforms.