IMF expects ‘significant’ pledges for new climate, pandemics trust

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund expects to members to make “significant” pledges of support for its newly approved Resilience and Sustainability Trust during the IMF-World Bank spring meetings beginning this week, a senior IMF official said.

The IMF’s board approved creation of the new trust last week to help low-income and most middle-income countries deal with longer-term challenges such as climate change and pandemics, with a goal of raising at least $45 billion.

Craig Beaumont, deputy director of the IMF’s Finance Department, said officials expected significant pledges to come in, although it could take longer to reach the full target.

Beaumount said the IMF would need to receive “a substantial fraction” of the total before starting operations of the new trust by the time of the fall meetings of the IMF and World Bank in October.

“We understand that some of the countries who’ve really been leading the discussions want to show their strong support by making a pledge during the spring meetings,” Beaumont told reporters.

“We don’t have a precise number, but my sense it could be a quite significant start to the overall fundraising effort.”

Beaumont said the IMF would build on the initial round of support and reach out to broader range of contributors to make up the full amount in coming months.

Beaumont gave no details on which countries would contribute early, or the exact amounts expected. He said members were finalizing their plans, and some countries would need the approval of their parliaments.

IMF staff hammered out details of the new facility in recent months after it won the backing of the Group of 20 major economies in October.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal;Editing by Alison Williams)