IMF should play effective role to foster global financial stability: Jaitley

India has called on the International Monetary Fund  to further strengthen its role by providing increased access to resources to enable it to play an effective role in fostering global economic and financial stability.

Participating in the International Monetary and Finance Committee (IMFC) and the plenary session of world economic leaders (IMFC Plenary) and the plenary meeting of the development committee (DC) in Washington DC, Jaitley stressed that the policy adjustments should be managed in a manner that minimises the negative spillovers on other countries.

He said while India has taken various steps towards bringing about structural reforms, promote investments and reform tax policies, the country still lacks the necessary resources to play an effective role in fostering global economic and financial stability. This, he said, can be brought about by increased access to IMF resources.

At the event, which was attended by select finance ministers and central bank governors, Jaitley also spoke about the global economy, Indian economy and the role of IMF.

IMFC is a key body providing strategic direction to the work and policies of the IMF.

The closed door discussions centered on prolonged period of subdued global growth, financial market volatility, impact of lower commodity prices and other geopolitical risks and their spillover on global economy.

Later, participating in the plenary meeting of the Development Committee (DC), the finance minister emphasised that the unfinished task of eliminating extreme poverty, achieving development ambitions enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meeting the enormous challenge of reconstruction posed by conflicts and fragility calls for the Bank Group to expand its annual lending to $100 billion.

The Development Committee is the ministerial-level forum of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the IMF for inter-governmental consensus building on development issues. The meeting focused on the 'Forward Look' exercise carried-out by the World Bank, issues of migration, forced displacement, Interim progress report on Dynamic Formula of Shareholding review and Disaster Risk Management.

Jaitley said the World Bank Group must undertake the general capital increase (GCI) and selective capital increase (SCI) in a timely manner to maintain leadership position in the development landscape.

The finance minister further said that the Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) discussions are extremely important for the borrowing countries and desired that the Bank team should take into consideration the feedback received during the consultation process and would now propose the right kind of standards for consideration of the member countries.

The finance minister is currently on official tour to Washington to attend the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and other associated meetings. He is accompanied by RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) secretary Shaktikanta Das, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian and other officials.