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Singapore Finance Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who chairs the policy-setting International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), said ministers and central bank governors gathered in Washington focused on the “real sustainable solutions to this crisis that the firewall is meant to support”.
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, said the spirit and dynamic of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings amounted to the “Washington moment” that she had been seeking to drive forward a collective solution to the crisis. The Group of Twenty (G20), along with the IMFC announced collective pledges of more than $430 billion to the 188-member IMF—doubling its lending capacity—to help build confidence and prevent crises from spreading.
Tharman said he saw a courageous and strong resolve to tackle the difficult issues of competiveness, debt and thrift and build a better future. “We know it’s going to be a long road and a multiyear journey; there will be pitfalls along the way which is why Christine’s umbrella is extremely important”, he said, referring to the additional pledges to the IMF. “It’s a very challenging journey, with politics intersecting with economics.”
The IMFC reaffirmed the urgency of making the 2010 quota and governance reforms effective by the 2012 Annual Meetings to enhance the Fund’s legitimacy and credibility.