IMF official says debt roundtable to focus on broad restructuring hurdles

IMF official says debt roundtable to focus on broad restructuring hurdles

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund's strategy director on Tuesday said the goal of a new sovereign debt panel of creditors and borrowers due to meet on Friday is to try to reach understandings on common standards, principles and definitions for how to restructure distressed country debts.

Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, director of the IMF's Strategy, Policy and Review Department, told reporters that the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable does not intend to discuss country-specific debt restructuring issues, but to address some of the broader impediments that have been delaying such relief.

The panel, organized by the IMF, the World Bank and India, this year's leader of the Group of 20 major economies, is due to hold its first virtual meeting on Friday, Feb 17. This will be followed by an in-person meeting on Feb. 25 on the sidelines of a G20 finance leaders meeting in Bengaluru, India.

Participants include officials from creditor countries China, India, Saudi Arabia, the United States and other wealthy Group of Seven democracies.

Pazarbasioglu said the roundtable also will include the Paris Club of official creditors, the Institute of International Finance, the International Capital Markets Association and other private sector creditors that she declined to identify.

She said six borrowing countries that have recently