Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer, Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin and Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, will attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) in Washington from 21 to 22 April 2022. A meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will take place in the run-up to the Spring Meetings.

The global effects of the war in Ukraine are casting a cloud over the global economic outlook and developing country debt is deteriorating. The IMF and the WBG have provided extensive assistance to Ukraine and other affected countries in recent weeks. At a World Bank roundtable on the war in Ukraine, Switzerland will reaffirm its support for multilateral engagement.

The IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) will address the longer-term global challenges and the need for action by the IMF. Switzerland welcomes the work on the economic policy response to climate change and supports the fact that the IMF's new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) is geared towards promoting climate transition efforts in low-income and vulnerable countries.

The WBG's Development Committee will discuss not only the debt issue, but also the potential offered by digitalisation for development and the WBG's approach in fragile and conflict-affected situations. Switzerland endorses this WBG commitment and advocates further debt transparency measures.

Another meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will take place in the run-up to the Spring Meetings. Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer will also attend the ministerial meeting of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), where he will emphasise that Switzerland agrees with the proposed strategic priorities in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.