Labour MEP Scicluna at IMF/WB annual meetings in Tokyo

“It is customary for the annual IMF/WB meetings to serve in putting peer pressure on a number of countries and regions to confrom with the latest economic and financial consensus. This time it was the Eurozone’s turn to come under fire.” This was stated by Labour MEP Prof Edward Scicluna who is currently attending the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) Group held in Tokyo, Japan between the 9 and 14 October 2012.

The meetings are attended by Finance Ministers, Central Bank Governors, leading bankers, economists and delegates from around 188 countries in discussing the current economic and financial issues.

The IMF, together with a number of world experts told European and US economic decision-makers to be more proactive in solving their financial and economic problems in view of the protracted recovery from the crises. Lately the IMF revised its global growth forecast downwards to 3.3%, with the Eurozone predicted to suffer an even worse contraction than was expected.

Prof Scicluna who was also a guest of the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and the Group of Thirty at their meetings in Tokyo said ”Even the IMF itself came under heavy criticism for its handling of the global crises.”

He added “What really emerged is that austerity programmes cannot be relied upon during a recession under a fixed exchange rate regime. We need to take a more gradual path to recovery in order to create jobs and avoid further poverty increases.”

Prof Scicluna also held meetings with a number of officials from leading banks, financial regulatory authorities and rating agencies.