IMF chief creates external advisory group on Covid-19 pandemic

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) formed a new external advisory group to weigh in on key developments and policy issues, including responses to challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact.

The group is comprised of about a dozen experts from around the world including former and serving ministers, professors, top company executives, economists and private-sector experts such as Allianz' chief economic adviser Mohamed  El-Erian and senior minister of Singapore and chairman of its monetary authority Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

“Even before the spread of Covid-19 and the dramatic health, economic, and financial disruptions it has brought, IMF members confronted a rapidly evolving world and complex policy issues,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday. “To serve our membership well in this context, we need top-notch input and expertise from the widest range of sources, inside and outside the fund."

The group's collective policy, market, and private sector experience comes as the Covid-19 pandemic cripples the global economy, shuts country borders, disrupts daily life and threatens to unleash a deep economic recession. The IMF has made $1 trillion (Dh3.67tn) in lending capacity available to countries and has doubled access to emergency facilities to $100bn.

The External Advisory Group will meet a few times a year with the Washington lender’s managing director and other senior IMF officials.

“We had a dynamic discussion to gain their insights, and to receive informal reactions to our ideas and approaches,” Ms Georgieva said.

Members of the 13-strong group also include Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Kristin Forbes, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and Mark Malloch Brown, former United Nations deputy secretary-general.

Other members of the group include Feike Sijbesima, honorary chair of DSM and former chief executive of Royal DSM, Raghuram Rajan, professor of University of Chicago, Ana Botín, group executive chairman of Santander, Carmen Reinhart, professor at Harvard University, Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of Guggenheim Investments and Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, chair of ActionAid International.