 "UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres")
The world risks a “great fracture” of its economic and financial systems, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday at a summit with Southeast Asia’s Asean bloc, China, US and others in Indonesia.
In a speech that touched on geopolitical tension, multilateral development finance and climate change, Guterres called on world leaders to find peaceful and inclusive solutions to the challenges facing the world. “There is a real risk of fragmentation – of a great fracture in world economic and financial systems; with diverging strategies on technology and artificial intelligence and conflicting security frameworks,” he said.
He called for a mechanism to provide relief for debt-strapped developing economies, to include payment suspensions, longer lending terms and lower interest rates.
He also voiced support for re-channelling an additional $100 billion of IMF’s SDR through multilateral development banks to increase liquidity and support developing economies’ needs.
