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IMF / LAGARDE
STORY: IMF / LAGARDE
TRT: 1.54
SOURCE: IMF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 OCTOBER 2013, WASHINGTON DC
1. Zoom in, news conference as Managing Director Christine Lagarde takes seat
2. Med shot, Lagarde and IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton and External Relations Department Director Gerry Rice with photographers gathered around
3. Wide shot, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF:
“If there is one key word from our perspective, it’s cooperation between the countries. So that when they devise their policy mix -- be it monetary policy, be it fiscal policy -- and when they look at the structural reforms that they will conduct, and when they look at the financial sector within which they facilitate fluidity, good monetary transmission and protect against the downfall of any financial institution, they do so together.”
5. Med shot, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF:
“I hope in a few weeks time, we will look back and say, ‘what a waste of time that was’ because it was unnecessary because it didn’t happen. But, we have to look at potential risks however improbably they are likely to materialize.”
7. Close up, reporter asking question
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director:
“The IMF is very keen and ready to engage with the Egyptian authorities in order to help the country and the people of Egypt stabilize the situation, address the economic difficulties that it is facing. We have had discussions over the last year and a-half, as you know, and we are certainly prepared to engage.”
9. Wide shot, news conference
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director:
“One piece of good news that I’m particularly pleased about: we have just reached the threshold of enough approval from our membership to transfer the existing gold profit to meet the financing needs of our low-income countries.”
10. Close up, reporters taking notes
11. Wide shot, officials closing briefing
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that reduced economic growth projections released this week by the IMF “clearly indicates there is recovery, but that it is slow and that it is unbalanced.”
On Tuesday (8 October), the IMF released its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, which forecast global growth to average 2.9 percent in 2013—below the 3.2 percent recorded in 2012—and to rise to 3.6 percent in 2014.
In her briefing today (10 October) Lagarde outlined some of the economic challenges and opportunities for the global economy.
She called for coordinated policies among all member nations as they seek to promote growth and recovery from the global economic crisis.
“If there is one key word from our perspective, it’s cooperation between the countries. So that when they devise their policy mix, be it monetary policy, be it fiscal policy, and when they look at the structural reforms that they will conduct, and when they look at the financial sector within which they facilitate fluidity, good monetary transmission and protect against the downfall of any financial institution, they do so together.”
As finance ministers, central bankers and others gather in Washington for the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, many eyed the ongoing U.S. federal government shutdown and disagreement over raising the government’s debt ceiling.
Lagarde said member nations of the IMF are discussing how to prepare for an extended shutdown or failure to raise the debt ceiling.
Lagarde said, “I hope in a few weeks time, we will look back and say, ‘What a waste of time that was’ because it was unnecessary because it didn’t happen. But, we have to look at potential risks however improbably they are likely to materialize.”
In her briefing, Lagarde was asked about IMF support for Egypt’s economy.
She said, “The IMF is very keen and ready to engage with the Egyptian authorities in order to help the country and the people of Egypt stabilize the situation, address the economic difficulties that it is facing. We have had discussions over the last year and a-half, as you know, and we are certainly prepared to engage.”
The IMF has secured funding for its concessional loans to the world’s poorest countries with its membership agreeing to contribute more than 90 percent of the windfall profits from the sale of IMF gold to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT).
The IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde described the commitments as an “historic milepost.”
She said, “one piece of good news that I’m particularly pleased about: we have just reached the threshold of enough approval from our membership to transfer the existing gold profit to meet the financing needs of our low-income countries.”
The newly-secured funding will allow the IMF to lend an average of SDR 1.25 billion (about US$1.9 billion dollars) annually to its low-income members over the longer term, broadly in line with the expected demand for IMF support. The move comes after 151 member countries agreed to pledge their share of windfall profit from the sale of IMF gold to the PRGT.
Lagarde said, “we now have the capacity to provide adequate levels of financial support to the poorest countries for years to come.”
This agreement is the culmination of a multi-year effort first envisaged in the late 1980s to secure adequate resources for the PRGT.
In 2009, the Executive Board of the IMF approved the sale of one-eighth of the IMF’s total holdings of gold to support the Fund’s new income model.
With the price of this precious commodity at near record highs, SDR 2.45 billion of the unexpected “windfall gold profits” (from a total SDR 6.85 billion raised), was placed in the IMF’s general reserve.
The IMF’s Executive Board agreed that the windfall profits should be used for the benefit of the Fund’s low-income members, and that the distribution of profits could only take place after members accounting for at least 90 percent of the distribution undertook to make their shares available to the PRGT.
The initiative to win the backing of member countries also involved country teams at the IMF, the Fund’s resident representatives, as well as its Management who lobbied on behalf of the move.
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