Putin muddies IMF spring meetings

The economic vice president of Spain, Nadia Calviño, during her speech at the Financial Committee of the IMFJose Luis Magana (AP)

The Moscow offensive against Ukraine has muddied the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the two major events that the organization based in Washington held every year and brings together the priests of the economy worldwide.

The bloody invasion has not only made change up and down all economic forecasts, but has also altered the course of the sessions.

The tension crystallized Thursday when the delegation of the Kremlin blocked a statement condemning.

"Unfortunately, the discrepancy of one of the members has broken the unit.

Russia's war against Ukraine has made it impossible to reach consensus on the statement, "he said at a press conference the Spanish Vice President Nadia Calvino, who was released as president of turn of the Financial Committee of the Fund, which is the advisory and guiding their policies.

When one of the member countries of the institution is the invader – and the cause of an unexpected major crisis – discussions about how to respond seem complicated.

The situation these days in the IMF has not reached the bizarre point of the United Nations Organizations (UN), where Russia is the country that holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council.

Hours before the war began, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, chaired a meeting of the highest executive body, but not on Ukraine, but on the Middle East.

And that night, in the midst of the second Council meeting in just 48 hours, the Kremlin announced the offensive with the words of "a special military action."

This time, Russia is not in the lead, but it does have the ability to veto the joint declarations, although, as Calviño has stated, "the members have made an overwhelming call to stop the war and concerns have been expressed about the negative impact of the conflict”.

Neither the meeting of the G-20 meeting on Wednesday could shed a joint position for the same reasons.

Instead of issuing a joint statement, the president of the Committee of the IMF read a statement in which he addressed the main points of the meeting and alludes to the human and economic bill that war driven by Russia assumed in the world, therefore the consequences direct as well as indirect.

Specifically, the body calls for a "rapid resolution through diplomatic channels", appeals to "political dialogue" and defends multilateralism.

The IMF not only calculates that the conflict will hamper the economic growth it had forecast for the world this year by eight tenths, up to 3.6%, but it also warns that it will prolong the rise in prices and the problems in the supply chains. supply, which feeds back into the crisis.

In addition, this shock to the economy comes when the world had only just recovered from the scourge of the worst pandemic in a century and raises the risk of a return to an economy of geopolitical blocs.

In this regard, Calvin stressed: "If there is a moment for multilateralism is this".

Asked whether governments should prioritize solve urgent problems or keep betting on goals medium and long term, such as fiscal sustainability, the Spanish vice president pointed out: "There is no question of having to bet on one or the other.

We must be very effective in responding in a coordinated manner and sign any risks and crisis, without losing sight of the long term objectives of financial and fiscal stability ".