The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank begin their two-day annnual meetings here tomorrow amidst calls for giving emerging economies a greater stake in the two multilateral institutions in reshaping the world after the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The meeting is taking place at a time when there has been a demand from various quarters that the stimulus packages should be continued as global economic recovery is yet to take place on a sustainable basis.
"I see this annual meeting as a unique opportunity to reshape a post-crisis world... It is part of the role of the Fund to work on that - to try to reshape what will be the world after the crisis," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said yesterday.
The meetings will be attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and RBI Governor D Subbarao among their counterparts from a host of countries.
Earlier, India and its three BRIC partners Brazil, Russia and China have agreed to push for a seven per cent shift in quota share for emerging economies in the IMF and another six per cent in the World Bank for developing countries.
The BRIC countries have said the IMF needs to change the strucuture of its board so that it could cease to be seen as mainly an "American-Euroepean institution" and become a truly multilateral institution.
Region-wise, Asia appears set to pull out of the global downturn faster and stronger than any other region.
"Fiscal and monetary policies (in Asia) should, therefore, continue to provide stimulus," IMF Director (Asia and Pacific Department) Anoop Singh said at a press conference ahead of Fund-Bank meetings.
In India, RBI has to take a call on monetary policy at its review on October 27, but economists feel that the central bank may not withdraw monetary stimulus even as there are inflationary pressures, particularly on food prices front.
The IMF has scaled up its projection for the global economic growth by 0.3 percentage points for this calendar year, but even then the global economy would contract 1.1 per cent.
India is projected to grow by 5.4 per cent in 2009 which is likely to be bettered only by China, pegged to clock 8.5 per cent growth.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has warned the world that as the global recession begins to ease, complacency is the latest threat.
