IMF Members in Bangkok Call for More Help as War Shocks Spread

The International Monetary Fund's member countries called on Saturday for more support for countries hit by wars and high energy prices, and said the risks to the world economy still point down.

The call came in a chair's statement after the International Monetary and Financial Committee met in Bangkok. The committee steers the IMF, the 191-member crisis lender. Its chair is Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, who told Reuters the wording of the statement was agreed by all members.

"Escalating conflicts and trade tensions could further disrupt critical trade routes, exacerbate commodity price pressures, including in refined energy products, and worsen energy and food security," the statement said.

Who needs the help

The members want more support for countries facing short-term financing problems caused by negative spillovers from wars and high energy prices. In plain terms, countries that did not start the wars are paying for them, through fuel bills, food bills and borrowing costs, and the fund is being asked to move faster for them.

The fight over two words

The statement also wrestled with new technology. It said investment and trade have had a boost from what it called advanced intelligence technologies, and that those technologies carry risks too. The uncertain impact of the technology, along with rising bond yields in big economies that spill into heavily indebted ones, could amplify macro-financial vulnerabilities, the statement said.

Behind that wording sits a naming dispute. Earlier this week the United States pressed fellow IMF members to rename artificial intelligence as super intelligence in the statement, in line with President Donald Trump's preferred name for the technology, a senior US Treasury official told Reuters. The final version contains no reference to artificial intelligence at all. It uses the agreed phrase instead.

The rest of the warning list

The statement said rapid technological change, demographic shifts, more frequent extreme weather and natural disasters, and geoeconomic fragmentation are compounding the tradeoffs policymakers face. None of that is new on its own. Together, in one agreed statement from 191 members in Bangkok, it sets the tone for the week of IMF and World Bank meetings: growth held up by technology spending, and almost everything else pushing the other way.

What this means for borrowers

For finance ministries watching from outside the room, the practical test is speed. A country squeezed by fuel and food prices it did not cause needs fund money before a short-term squeeze becomes a debt crisis. The statement asks the fund to stand ready for exactly that, while warning that higher bond yields in rich economies keep pulling money and room to manoeuvre away from the poorest borrowers.