Governments should continue providing support to the philanthropic sector while taking steps to safeguard tax systems and ensure that the activities of philanthropic organisations continue to align with the public interest, according to a new report from the OECD. Taxation and Philanthropy reviews the tax treatment of philanthropic entities and charitable donations in 40 countries worldwide. The report points out the significant impact of philanthropy – the non-profit sector represents as much as 5% of GDP in many countries – as well as the wide range of potential tax policy ...

G20 international merchandise trade rebounded sharply in the third quarter of 2020 (exports up 21.6% and imports up 18.1%) after its precipitous fall in the second quarter of 2020 as lockdown measures were brought in across the globe. However, international trade remains around 5% below its pre-pandemic level in Q4 2019 and close to 10% below the most recent high seen in Q3 2018. Furthermore, provisional data for October, in those countries where data are available, suggest that renewed lockdown measures introduced in many economies may already be beginning to ...

The head of the International Monetary Fund called for prompt and effective implementation of a new G20 framework set up to help the world’s poorest countries reach permanent debt relief, but said other countries needed help as well. “It is critical to operationalize this Framework promptly and effectively,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement after addressing the leaders of the Group of 20 major economies. “Going forward, we must also help those countries not covered by the Framework to address debt vulnerabilities so that their economies can ...

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed major weaknesses in our economies that can only be fixed through greater global co-operation and strong, targeted policy action, according to a new OECD report presented to the Leaders of the G20 countries at their virtual Summit this past weekend. New Horizons, a report requested by the G20 to support its Action Plan in response to the crisis, says governments need to plan now for the recovery while continuing to live with the virus. Emergency economic measures to tackle the crisis will need to be ...

As the International Monetary Fund presses governments to sign on to a new sovereign debt restructuring framework, it faces a conundrum: How to make such actions more palatable to private investors and avoid months or years of haggling. The IMF on Thursday said that wider and more standardized use of state-contingent debt instruments (SCDIs), which allow for increased payouts based on improved economic outcomes, could play an important role in sovereign debt restructurings. SCDIs, including warrants linked to GDP growth, are attractive in theory. However, they have been rarely used ...

The global economy is recovering from the depths of the coronavirus crisis, but there are signs of slowing momentum in countries with resurging infection rates, the International Monetary Fund said in a new report for G20 major economies. The report, released ahead of this week’s virtual meetings of finance officials and leaders from the Group of 20 countries, underscored the uneven nature of the global recovery and warned the crisis would likely leave deep, unequal scars. In a separate blog post, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva hailed what she called ...

The pandemic has exacerbated existing debt vulnerabilities in many countries, particularly low-income countries. Addressing these vulnerabilities is a complex undertaking. In this Q+A, Ceyla, Pazarbasioglu, Director of the IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department explains how the IMF is taking a deliberate, case-by-case approach to help its member countries address these debt challenges and outlines the priorities in the period ahead. How do you see the situation of debt in low-income countries (LICs)? Debt levels were already at record high levels before the crisis and the COVID-19 crisis is pushing ...

The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that Germany navigated the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic well, thanks to Berlin’s strong response, but a second wave of infections is darkening the growth outlook for Europe’s largest economy. “While the economy began to rebound in the third quarter, the outlook has weakened in the face of a new wave of infections, and downside risks loom large,” the IMF said in its latest Germany report. The Washington-based international lender applauded Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government for its “early and vigorous” policy response, ...

International merchandise trade continued to expand in September, although at a slower pace than that recorded in August with levels remaining about 10% below 2019 averages. Services trade also continued to grow in most economies but, with the exception of China and Japan, which saw strong growth in September, it remained subdued. Merchandise trade data for October point to continued fragility in international trade. Asia-Pacific Following strong merchandise trade figures in September (exports and imports increased by 12.8% and 7.0%, respectively), Korean exports and imports contracted by 8.2% and 3.6% ...

China’s top official at the International Monetary Fund said the United States was currently cautious about a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights, the IMF’s own currency, but he hoped a consensus for new allocation could be reached in the future. Zhongxia Jin, China’s executive director at the IMF, told an online event he hoped Washington’s opposition to a new SDR allocation would be overcome as many low-income countries’ liquidity problems turned into insolvency issues. Jin, who spoke at an event hosted by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, did ...

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday the global economy’s road to recovery must be underpinned with continuously strong policy and that fiscal and monetary support should not be withdrawn prematurely. Georgieva made the remarks in a video message to the Caixin Summit in Beijing. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Cheng Leng and Ryan Woo; writing by Se Young Lee; editing by Richard Pullin)

The adopted G20 common debt framework is a ‘very important step’ toward improving international debt architecture, but other countries besides the world’s poorest could face unsustainable debts and the crisis “is not over,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday. Georgieva, in remarks to officials from the Group of 20, said the common framework will increase the likelihood of private sector participation. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Rodrigo Campos)

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday called on G20 countries to synchronize their investments to rebuild from the coronavirus pandemic, saying this would achieve a stronger growth outcome at less cost. Speaking at the Paris Peace Forum a day before G20 finance leaders hold a virtual meeting on Friday, Georgieva said countries needed to take advantage of idle investment capacity, available fiscal space and very low interest rates to boost jobs and growth and reduce economic inequality. “If the G 20 countries, move together, invest together at ...

Even before the recent tightening of COVID-19 restrictions in many major economies, CLIs compiled for October 2020 pointed to a continued deceleration in the pace of improvement in the OECD as a whole and across most major economies. Whilst some expectation of these recent measures will have been anticipated in this month’s CLI estimates, their full impact will only be picked-up in next month’s CLI estimates. Prior to the introduction of recent COVID-19 containment measures, CLIs for October in the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy and the euro area ...

Climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for developing countries totalled USD 78.9 billion in 2018, up 11% from 71.2 billion in 2017. The increase was driven by a rise in public climate finance, while private climate finance was flat, according to new figures from the OECD. Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013-18 is the OECD’s third assessment of progress towards the UNFCCC goal of mobilising USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle and adapt to climate change. This latest ...