For decades the International Monetary Fund It has been part of that magma of international organizations and powers that many, in many parts of the world, saw as responsible for political decisions that did not seem to take the ordinary citizen into account. This was what happened, for example, in recent years of draconian measures of austerity. Now, the body seems determined to give a change of direction. And this Friday, at the joint press conference of Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, and Nadia Calviño, vice president of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the organization, both have shown the need to “put people at the center of our policies nationally and internationally” and to make sure those policies are “inclusive” and “fair”.
The statements have come after an Italian journalist asked the leaders if the IMF is concerned about the rise of movements of extreme right and the risk of political and financial fragmentation. And it is something to which Georgieva has responded by calling to look at the roots of discontent, to the reasons why people search for those platforms. “In recent years the inequality has risen in the world. It is also true that the attention to the parts of countries that are most depressed It has not been as high as it should & rdquor ;, he has argued. “We are dedicated to the economy, not to politics & rdquor ;, she has nuanced, “but what we must look at is that who should be in the center is the people. Policies are for the people.”
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Calviño, for his part, has defended that realities such as the slowdown in growth, the rising cost of living, growing inequality and the changes that have to do with digitization, climate change or geopolitical shifts have created “an environment quite open for messages from gentity that offers very simple and totally ineffective and wrong solutions for very complex issues&rdquor ;, in indirect but clear allusion to the extreme right.
That has been one of the messages that Calviño and Georgieva have left after another meeting of the Committee that, as happened in the spring, has not been able to issue a joint statement due to the Russian blockade, a unanimous veto that Calviño has criticized. The Spanish economic vice-president, however, has assured that in the meeting there has been a forceful call to Moscow to end the war against Ukraine, a conflict that, he assured, “is the most important element that is causing the slowdown in the economy, generating inflation, volatility, food and energy insecurity and uncertainty.” “The peace is the most important economic policy tool at this moment & rdquor ;, he also said.