The World Bank’s ongoing reform could result in a US$50 billion lending boost over the next decade, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen told reporters ahead of stakeholders’ meetings this week where key changes are expected to be announced.
Central bankers, finance ministers and participants from more than 180 member countries are expected to gather in the US capital for the IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings this week.
A key topic of discussion would be the World Bank’s evolution, amid a push for lenders to revamp and meet global challenges like climate change. The US is the largest shareholder of the World Bank Group.
Photo: AFP
“I expect there to be an update of the bank’s mission to add building resilience against climate change, pandemics, and conflict and fragility to the core goals,” Yellen said in the interview with Agence France-Presse on Thursday.
She added that there needs to be a recognition that these challenges are not separate or conflicting, but rather inextricably linked.
“Second, there will be an announcement that the bank is stretching its financial capacity to meet these objectives, and adopting changes or endorsing changes that could result in an additional US$50 billion in extra lending capacity over the next decade,” Yellen said.
The move would be a significant resource boost marking a 20 percent rise in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (IBRD) sustainable lending level. The IBRD is the World Bank’s middle-income lending arm.
Yellen also said there would be an announcement on updating the bank’s operational model to “orient it towards the goals that we’re setting.”
Among other things, this includes creating more incentives for the mobilization of both domestic and private capital.
“We seek additional reforms during the rest of this year,” Yellen said.
Last month, the World Bank submitted an evolution plan to be discussed with its development committee on Wednesday, during the spring meetings.
Saying that World Bank president David Malpass has laid a “solid foundation” for the ongoing work, Yellen added that she expects US candidate Ajay Banga to be elected to the helm of the organization and continue the revamp.
Banga was the sole nominee for the position after Malpass announced this year that he would step down early.
Also on policymakers’ agendas this week are support for war-torn Ukraine and debt restructuring.
“We have seen some movement by China on participating in debt restructuring for Sri Lanka, which is a hopeful sign,” Yellen said.
As global growth slows, the World Bank previously warned that the outlook is especially tough for the poorest economies — which face sluggish growth driven by heavy debt burdens and weak investment.
Yellen had earlier said that China should move more quickly on some debt restructurings.
Discussions on this front would continue this week as a newly formed global sovereign debt roundtable gathers, she said.
“We’re having useful technical discussions on important elements of debt restructuring. China has been participating, and we all continue to press China for improvements,” she added.
Washington would continue pushing for a speedier and more predictable operation of the G20 “common framework” for debt restructuring as well.
On Ukraine, Yellen said: “Once again, we will work with all of our allies to insist that Russia cease its brutality in Ukraine.”
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
RSS