IMF should promote global view on tackling crisis

THE global economic outlook and financial stability discussion is the centrepiece of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC). It allows ministers and central bank governors, often domestically focused, to hear from others about their challenges, responses and strategies for coping. The aim is for them to develop a more collective global view.

Often, the Federal Reserve chair, the European Central Bank (ECB) president, and the governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) lead the talks. The key global central banks and fiscal authorities are implementing massive and impressive crisis responses, despite the lack of multilateral cooperative framing, in contrast to the G-20's work during the 2008 financial crisis.

The US executive and congressional branches, often immobilised by gridlock, have enacted three fiscal bills, totalling more than 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Germany abandoned its sacrosanct "schwarze Null" (black zero). The "do whatever it takes" Fed - led by a revolutionary Jay Powell - pulled out its 2008 playbook and added multiple new facilities. ECB president Christine Lagarde launched a pandemic emergency purchase programme and swept away the capital key. The PBOC is stepping up stimulus, despite concerns about excess leverage.