(AGENPARL) – ven 14 luglio 2023 The latest IMF analysis of global economics, finance, development and policy issues shaping the world. []
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Dear Colleague,
In today’s edition, we highlight:
– Managing director on G20 priorities
– South Africa central bank chief on capital flows
– Crypto’s tax problems
– UK’s investment outlook
– Seychelles’ climate finance
GROUP OF TWENTY
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Kristalina Georgieva says that agile multilateral support is vital to tackle common challenges posed by debt vulnerabilities, climate change, and limited concessional financing—especially for countries hit by shocks not of their making.
“We must act now and act together to get all countries back on a sustainable path to growth and prosperity.”
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CAMDESSUS LECTURE
(Credit: IMF Photo/Kim Haughton)
Delivering this year’s Michel Camdessus lecture, Lesetja Kganyago said credible macroeconomic policies, including a reasonable degree of price stability and a resilient financial system, are the bedrock of investor confidence. “Good policymaking starts with implementation,” he said.
But, he added, implementation depends on “the quality of institutions as well as the human capital available and empowered to run them.” In South Africa’s “golden years”, the country used capital flows to reduce debt and grow the economy, Kganyago said. From 2010, however, they “have enabled excess and permitted the build-up of a large sovereign debt position.”
“If you are going to absorb capital flows,” he stressed, “you need to get allocation right.”
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CRYPTO ASSETS
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Crypto assets that can be used as instruments of payment have proliferated into more than 10,000 variants since the 2009 debut of Bitcoin, the first and still the largest. The bewildering speed with which they have developed and the pseudonymity they can provide have left tax systems playing catch up.
“Policymakers need to develop clear, coherent, and effective frameworks for taxing crypto,” they say.
SEYCHELLES
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Seychelles is successfully balancing conservation and economic development by tapping innovative financing instruments. The East African island nation relies largely on tourism and fishing for revenue and was the first country to issue a blue bond and to designate its fragile coastal areas for protection in return for a novel deal relieving it of part of its sovereign debt.
It is now also the second African country, after Rwanda, to access the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility—funding aimed at helping countries with limited room in their budget address long-term challenges, such as climate change and pandemic preparedness.
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UNITED KINGDOM
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