Sitharaman meets IMF’s Gita Gopinath, discusses downside risks to economy

New Delhi: Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman met IMF Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath in Washington D.C., during which she noted the monetary body’s concerns on key downside risks to the economy including financial sector stress, inflation and geo-political fragmentation as well as faltering growth in China.

The meeting took place on Tuesday on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings.

According to the Finance Ministry, Sitharaman congratulated Gopinath for accelerating India’s work on the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable along with the World Bank and reiterated New Delhi’s commitment to foster efforts to address growing debt vulnerabilities.

Sitharaman also acknowledged IMF’s support to India’s G20 Presidency in the form of inputs towards developing evidence-based policy guidance.

Meanwhile, the top IMF official congratulated the Union Minister on the “fruitful discussions that translated the February consensus on the need for a globally coordinated policy response on crypto assets into an agreed set of guiding principles and an action plan on crypto assets”, said the Ministry.

Taking to Twitter following the meeting, Gopinath said: “Had a very good discussion with Finance Minister Sitharaman at the IMF-World Bank spring meetings, to discuss the progress being made under India’s G20 Presidency on debt issues and crypto related challenges.”