LSE GLOBAL POLICY LAB
Nine ideas to strengthen our global firepower against COVID-19 Erik Berglof
Professor,Chief Director, Institute of Global Affairs, London School of Economics Political Science Economist, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) andand Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science
The two sides of the COVID-19 crisis – the medical emergency and the economic impact – are closely intertwined. Many emerging and developing economies feel the economic impact first. Falling commodity prices, drops in tourism revenues, reduced remittances from citizens abroad, and the rapid outflows of capital are ravaging their economies, even before the virus has taken hold. In turn, the economic devastation will undermine their capacity to respond to the virus and threaten social and political stability in the medium term. The pandemic is exposing the global financial safety net and development finance architecture – of which the IMF and the World Bank are central elements – to the most serious shock since the two institutions emerged out of the ruins of two world wars and the Great Depression. The G20 finance ministers presented a Global Action Plan to fight the COVID-19 crisis ahead of the IMF/ World Bank (virtual) Spring Meeting in April. The Plan is a good first step, but we need far, far more. We must urgently find new and innovative ways of putting global financial muscle, including the private sector, behind our multilateral institutions. This will require the same kind of bold leadership, innovative thinking and institution-building that marked their founding. The initial responses from the IMF and the World Bank, and the regional development banks, have been powerful. But the demands on them will only increase as the crisis accelerates, especially in the emerging and developing world.
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Europe and Asia – is critical in providing liquidity and maintaining financial stability. Yet the IMF’s current firepower is not enough to deal with the magnitude of this crisis. 1. Establish liquidity support lines: Create a liquidity facility to which pre-qualified countries in need could turn. Pre-qualification could avoid the stigma associated with applying for support. Such liquidity lines could be supplemented by IMF intermediating support lines, from systemic central banks to central banks, in well-run emerging economies with liquidity problems.
There have been many ideas for how to strengthen the development finance architecture and the global financial safety net. There have been many ideas for how to strengthen the development finance architecture and the global financial safety net. Several of them were discussed in the final report from the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance (EPG), presented in October 2018. Here I suggest three measures for each of the global financial safety net, development finance architecture, and the capacity of the core institutions to ‘crowd in’ private and institutional capital. Three ideas on how to strengthen the IMF’s firepower The global financial safety net – with the IMF at the core, complemented by a patchy and incomplete system of regional arrangements mainly in
2. Issue Special Drawing Rights (SDRs): The current arrangements, which rely on the IMF’s existing resources, do not meet the expected liquidity requirements and eventual solvency threats in many countries. The most direct way to provide additional capital to the IMF would be to issue additional Special Drawing Rights, which would both increase firepower and offer a valuable stimulus to the global economy. 3. Transfer unused Special Drawing Rights: Many countries, particularly advanced economies, do not borrow up to their quotas with the IMF. These unused quotas could be transferred to countries with greater needs, either through an arrangement within the IMF or an external vehicle. This could also be part of an issuance of new SDRs to ensure that new resources really go to the countries most in need.
