IMF ‘too polite’ on China policies, financing assurances: US Treasury official

Brent Neiman, the Treasury’s deputy undersecretary for global finance, talked about the IMF has did not expend sufficient analytical rigour to China’s industrial policies

Reuters

02 October, 2024, 02:00 pm

Closing modified: 02 October, 2024, 02:02 pm

IMF 'too polite' on China policies, financing assurances: US Treasury legit

The Global Monetary Fund is “too polite” by formula of criticising China’s financial policies and will more completely present an explanation for financing assurances given by China and a few varied international locations to make stronger IMF mortgage programs, a senior US Treasury legit talked about on Tuesday.

Brent Neiman, the Treasury’s deputy undersecretary for global finance, talked about the IMF has did not expend sufficient analytical rigour to China’s industrial policies.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Speaking at an tournament hosted by the OMFIF financial deem tank, Neiman equipped surprisingly pointed criticism of the IMF’s approach to China earlier than IMF and World Bank annual meetings later this month.

The Treasury manages the dominant US shareholding in the IMF and has many instances warned China about its industrial overcapacity, technology transfer and forex practices all the most effective plot thru the last yr, including for the duration of a time out to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that laid groundwork for greater US tariffs that took derive remaining week.

KEY QUOTES:

Neiman talked about the IMF wanted to be a “ruthless fact teller,” but that its annual financial evaluate on China derive no longer give sufficient attention to alternate fee and industrial policies.

“The IMF doesn’t publicly touch upon the position of allege-owned banks in managing China’s alternate fee or on why adjustments in the Other folks’s Bank of China’s balance sheet don’t line up with reserve transactions in China’s balance of funds files,” Neiman talked about.

An IMF spokesperson couldn’t right away be reached for comment. The IMF and World Bank will assess a range of policies for the duration of the week of Oct. 21 at their annual meetings in Washington.

CONTEXT

Neiman also criticised the IMF’s lack of transparency in disclosing external financing assurances given by China and varied international locations to supplement IMF mortgage programs. Such assurances got in recent programs for Argentina, Ecuador and Suriname, that were no longer delivered or vastly delayed, he talked about.

The IMF remaining week licensed a $7 billion program for Pakistan that incorporated financing assurances from China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but declined to produce crucial parts on the assurances.

Neiman talked about the IMF also most inspiring referred to China as Ecuador’s “main bilateral creditor” in its program paperwork including that such “politeness” can in the reduction of incentives for creditors to honour their assurances in a neatly timed formula.