The International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting gets under way against a backdrop of rising concern over the health of the global economy. From the travails of emerging economies to the scale of the Chinese downturn, there is much to debate at the gathering in Lima, alongside tackling longstanding problems such as cracking down on the tax affairs of multinational corporations.
The IMF’s annual meetings are a moment for the finance ministers and central bankers from the Washington-based lender’s 188 member-countries to share their concerns about the state of the financial world.
This year, it is the emerging economies, which helped to lift global growth in the aftermath of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, that are provoking most anxiety.
Brazil and Russia are in recession, China is slowing sharply, and a string of other emerging countries, including Turkey and Venezuela, look vulnerable to the combination of falling commodity prices and a strengthening dollar. Finance ministers will discuss how to prevent this weakness from spiralling into a full-blown financial crisis.
