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Officials from China, India, Saudi Arabia and Group of Seven nations will participate in a first virtual meeting of a new sovereign debt roundtable on Friday, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
The roundtable will also include officials from countries that have requested debt treatments under the Group of 20 common framework – Ethiopia, Zambia and Ghana – as well as middle-income countries such as Sri Lanka, Suriname and Ecuador, which have faced their own debt crises, three sources had earlier said.
The meeting will be co-chaired by the IMF, the World Bank and India, the current leader of the Group of 20, and comes a week before G20 finance officials are due to gather in Bengaluru, India, from Feb. 23-25. An in-person meeting of the roundtable expected on Feb. 25 and a formal launch is planned at the IMF-World Bank spring meetings in April.
Brazil, which will lead the G20 next year, is also taking part, one of the sources said.
An IMF spokesperson confirmed the first roundtable meeting would take place on Friday, and said more details would be released in the near future.
“The objective is to bring together key stakeholders involved in sovereign debt restructuring, from traditional creditors from advanced economies, to new creditors like China, Saudi Arabia, India, as well as the private sector and debt countries to address the current shortcomings,” they said.
