India may have a troublesome activity as G-20 chair, says IMF chief economist

India, which can maintain the G-20 presidency subsequent yr, may have a troublesome activity because the group’s chair to carry nations collectively on a few of the key challenges being confronted by the world, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the chief economist of the IMF, mentioned on Wednesday.

“One of the challenges for the G-20 right now, as we’ve seen, is of course how to deal with geo-economic fragmentation. And geo-economy fragmentation is just reflecting the fact that we’ve seen enormous tensions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Gourinchas informed information company PTI in an interview.

“To some extent to the G-20, it’s much harder to have these kinds of conversations around the common goods in the current environment because there is all this tension related to geopolitical considerations. And so, India will have a difficult task, but also, I would think one of the important objectives will be to keep the countries at the table, to keep the discussion going, keep progress being made on important issues,” he mentioned in response to a query.

Describing G-20 as a vital establishment, Gourinchas mentioned the group is the one place the place there may be governance representing nearly all of the worldwide economic system coming collectively.

It is not only a bunch of wealthy nations. It is actually one thing that has a number of voices. Lots of progress will be made by G-20, he mentioned.

“One of the things that we talk about quite often in the context of the G-20 is the common framework. It’s a very important initiative. It’s still finding its footing. We at the fund are somewhat frustrated with sometimes a lack of progress on the common framework,” he mentioned.

But it’s a extremely essential initiative that may very well be made on the stage of the worldwide neighborhood, coming collectively and discovering methods through which sustainability issues may very well be addressed, the chief economist mentioned, including that that’s one thing which the IMF is taking a look at very intently.

Observing that at a venue just like the G-20, multilateralism can actually have discussions on widespread items and make progress and customary items, Gourinchas mentioned, “So what are the common goods that where progress could be made? Prominent among those include the issue of climate change and debt sustainability.”

Digitalisation, he mentioned, could be very a lot on the forefront. “The whole issue of how the emergence of digital currencies, crypto assets, how is this going to stabilise, destabilise? How should we be doing? There are enormous externalities at the global level regarding the emergence of these new instruments. So how are we as a global community should we organise this space,” he mentioned.

“Should we regulate it? How should it be regulated? The cross-border aspect is going to be very important. So that’s obviously a common good,” Gourinchas mentioned.