US treasury Secretary urges IMF to press creditors to finalise debt restructurings

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for quicker action to resolve several outstanding sovereign debt restructuring cases and urged the International Monetary Fund to press all bilateral creditors to finalise such deals. The Treasury said Yellen raised the issue during meetings with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calviño, who heads the IMF’s steering committee, ahead of next week’s IMF and World Bank spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

“Secretary Yellen urged the IMF to deepen its efforts to support low- and middle-income countries facing debt distress, including by continuing to press all bilateral official creditors to finalise outstanding debt restructuring cases,” the IMF said in a statement. It added that Yellen discussed with Georgieva and Calviño priorities for the IMF and World Bank meetings, recent developments in the global economy and financial system, and the need to continue support for low-income and vulnerable countries.

Yellen’s meetings also included discussions of the IMF’s $15.6 billion loan program for Ukraine approved on Friday and the Biden administration’s request for Congress to approve U.S. lending of up to $21 billion to the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust, the Treasury said.