China is willing to implement debt disposal

BEIJING: China reiterated it is willing to implement a debt disposal framework with other countries, People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said in remarks published on Friday, as it haggles with the International Monetary Fund over development financing. Yi made the remarks at a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors during the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., according to a statement by the Chinese central bank.

Reuters has reported that Beijing was poised to drop its demand that multilateral development banks share in debt restructuring losses, partly in exchange for the IMF and the World Bank providing earlier access to their debt sustainability analyses. Neither the PBOC nor the Finance Ministry responded to a request for comment on the matter during Chinese business hours on Thursday.

No commitments by China were included in a joint statement issued on Wednesday by the World Bank, the IMF and India, current president of the G20, after the first full-fledged meeting of the new Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable. However, the statement did confirm that they had agreed on ways to streamline debt restructuring efforts, including data sharing and clearer timetables. World Bank President David Malpass told reporters in Washington on Thursday that participants in the sovereign debt roundtable will have a workshop in May to discuss burden-sharing among creditors.

No specific date has been set for the meeting.