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PRESS RELEASE NO. 25/123

Chair’s Statement: Fifty-First Meeting of the IMFC - Mr. Mohammed Aljadaan,

Minister for Finance of Saudi Arabia
April 25, 2025

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In the context of the Fifty-First Meeting of the IMFC that took place in Washington, D.C. on 24 and 25

April, IMFC members welcomed the ongoing eﬀorts to end wars and conflicts, recognizing that peace is

essential to restoring stability and fostering sustainable growth. IMFC members underscored that all states

must act in a manner consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter in its entirety. They

acknowledged, however, that the IMFC is not a forum to resolve geopolitical and security issues which are

discussed in other fora.

The world economy is at a pivotal juncture. Following several years of rising concerns over trade, trade tensions have

abruptly soared, fueling elevated uncertainty, market volatility, and risks to growth and financial stability. Near-term

growth is projected to slow and intensifying downside risks dominate the outlook. We will step up our eﬀorts to

strengthen economic resilience and build a more prosperous future. We underline the critical role of the IMF in helping

us navigate this challenging environment, as a trusted advisor and champion of strong policy frameworks. We thank our

Deputies for discussing the medium-term direction of the IMF during their meeting in Diriyah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

on April 6-7, 2025 (https://www.imfconnect.org/content/imf/en/pub/IMFC_Deputies_Spring2025_Public.html), and we

agree on the annexed Diriyah Declaration.

1. The world economy is at a pivotal juncture. Following several years of rising concerns over trade, trade tensions

have abruptly soared, fueling elevated uncertainty, market volatility, and risks to growth and financial stability.

Near-term growth is projected to slow, while disinflation is expected to continue but at a slower pace. Intensifying

downside risks dominate the outlook, in an already challenging context of weak growth and high public debt.

Wars and conflicts impose a heavy humanitarian and economic toll. Transformative forces, such as

digitalization/artificial intelligence, demographic shifts, and climate transitions are creating opportunities, but also

challenges.

2. We will step up our eﬀorts to strengthen economic resilience and break from the low-growth, high-debt path,

while harnessing transformative forces, to build a more prosperous future. Comprehensive and well calibrated,

well sequenced, and well communicated reforms and policy actions are needed to boost private sector-led

growth, productivity, and job creation. We will pursue sound macroeconomic policies and advance structural

reforms to improve the business environment, streamline excessive regulation, fight corruption, and mobilize

innovation and technology adoption. We will deepen our pivot toward growth-friendly fiscal adjustments to

ensure debt sustainability and rebuild buﬀers where needed. Fiscal adjustments should be mindful of

distributional impacts and underpinned by a credible medium-term consolidation plan, while strengthening the

eﬃciency of public spending, protecting the vulnerable, and supporting growth-enhancing public and private

investments, taking into account country circumstances. Central banks remain strongly committed to maintaining

price stability, in line with their respective mandates, and will continue to adjust their policies in a data dependent

and well-communicated manner. We will continue to closely monitor and, as necessary, tackle financial

vulnerabilities and risks to financial stability, while harnessing the benefits of innovation. We will work together to

improve the resilience of the world economy and build prosperity and ensure the stability and eﬀective

functioning of the international monetary system. We will also work together to address excessive global

imbalances, support an open, fair and rules-based international economic order, and reinforce supply chain

resilience. We reaﬃrm our April 2021 exchange rate commitments.

3. We will continue to support countries as they undertake reforms and address debt vulnerabilities and debt

service challenges. We acknowledge the specific challenges faced by low-income and vulnerable countries,

including fragile and conflict-aﬀected states (FCS) and small developing states (SDS), which are further

compounded by recent decrease in oﬃcial development assistance. We underline the importance of the Poverty

Reduction and Growth Trust. We welcome the progress made on debt treatments under the G20 Common

Framework (CF) and beyond. We remain committed to addressing global debt vulnerabilities in an eﬀective,

comprehensive, and systematic manner, including further stepping up the CF’s implementation in a predictable,

timely, orderly, and coordinated manner, and enhancing debt transparency. We look forward to further work at

the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable on ways to address debt vulnerabilities and restructuring challenges. We

encourage the IMF and the World Bank to help advance the implementation of the 3-pillar approach to address

debt service pressures in countries with sustainable debt, including through supporting them to implement

growth-enhancing reforms, mobilize domestic resources, and attract private capital. We look forward to the

review of the Low-Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework (LIC-DSF).

4. We welcome the Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda.

5. We support further sharpening the focus of surveillance based on analytical rigor, evenhandedness, and tailored

policy advice. We welcome a strong focus on helping countries strengthen their economic resilience and achieve

macroeconomic and financial stability and sustainable growth by increasing productivity, addressing macro-

critical risks, reducing excessive imbalances, achieving debt sustainability, and mitigating disruptive capital flows

and exchange rate volatility. We look forward to the Comprehensive Surveillance Review that will set future

surveillance priorities and modalities; and the Review of Financial Sector Assessment Programs to keep financial

surveillance in step with evolving financial stability risks.

6. We look forward to the Review of Program Design and Conditionality to strengthen further the eﬀectiveness of

IMF-supported programs and to the Review of the Short-Term Liquidity Line. We also look forward to the

assessment of the Global Financial Safety Net, including the role of Regional Financing Arrangements (RFAs), and

its ability to safeguard global financial stability.

7. We support eﬀorts to further strengthen capacity development and to ensure the sustainability of financing. We

welcome the IMF’s ongoing work with the World Bank on the Joint Domestic Resource Mobilization Initiative. We

welcome a more flexible and tailored delivery, better integrated with policy advice and program design, as set

out in the 2024 Capacity Development Strategy Review.

8. We reaﬃrm our commitment to a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF at the center of the GFSN.

We have advanced the domestic approvals for our consent to the quota increase under the 16 General Review

of Quotas and we look forward to the finalization of this process as soon as possible. We recognize that

realignment in quota shares should aim at better reflecting members’ relative positions in the world economy,

while protecting the voice of the poorest members. We acknowledge, however, that building consensus among

members on quota and governance reforms will require progress in stages. In this regard, we agree on the

annexed Diriyah Declaration on the way forward.

9. We underline the critical role of the IMF in helping us navigate the current challenging environment, as a trusted

advisor and champion of strong policy frameworks. We reaﬃrm our commitment to the institution and look

forward to discussing further ways to ensure the Fund remains agile and focused, working in collaboration with

partners and other IFIs. We reiterate our appreciation for staﬀ’s high-quality work and dedication to support the

membership and continue to encourage further eﬀorts to improve regional and women’s representation within

staﬀ positions, and women’s representation at the Executive Board and in Board leadership positions.

10. Our next meeting is expected to be held in October 2025.

Annexed Diriyah Declaration

Recalling the October 2024 IMFC Chair’s Statement, which stated:

“We reiterate our strong commitment to the Fund on

its 80th anniversary and look forward to further discussing at our next meeting ways to ensure the Fund remains well-

equipped to meet future challenges, in line with its mandate, and in collaboration with partners and other IFIs. We ask

our Deputies to prepare for this discussion.”; and

Drawing on the work advanced by our Deputies, who met in the historic town of Diriyah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

on April 6-7, 2025, to prepare for this discussion;

We thank our Deputies and agree on the following Diriyah Declaration on the way forward with regard to IMFC

processes and IMF quota and governance reforms.

*****

Enhancing IMFC Processes

We agree that the IMFC plays a key role in the IMF’s governance structure, oﬀering the IMF Board of Governors trusted

advice and providing strategic direction to the work and policies of the Fund through structured, high-level, and

consensus-driven policy guidance on all relevant issues.

To enhance its eﬀectiveness as a forum for eﬀective engagement and consensus-building on complex challenges, we

agree to further strengthen IMFC processes. To this end, we welcome recent improvements to the format of the

Introductory IMFC session and the use of concise, accessible communiqués to eﬀectively convey key IMFC messages to

a broader audience. Moreover, we agree that deputy-level meetings focused on strategic rather than routine issues

could support the work of IMFC principals.

We appreciate the value of engagement across the international financial architecture, including with Regional

Financing Arrangements (RFAs), to enhance cooperation and strengthen the resilience of the international monetary

system.

Strengthening IMF Governance

We note that the world economy currently faces significant challenges and agree that the IMF makes a vital contribution

to international cooperation, providing a long-established and trusted institution for policy discussions informed by

rigorous analysis. We stress that the IMF’s mandate to promote macroeconomic and financial stability remains as

relevant as ever, and its role to support members in addressing macroeconomic challenges through analysis and policy

advice, capacity development, and financing where relevant, is key. We agree on the need to ensure that the institution

remains strong, quota-based, adequately resourced, and eﬃciently managed to fulfil its mandate at the center of the

global financial safety net.

We agree that a strong, inclusive, and representative governance framework is fundamental to maintaining the Fund’s

credibility and legitimacy among its diverse membership. Strengthening IMF governance will support its continued

ability to eﬀectively promote consensus among the membership in addressing global challenges. These eﬀorts are also

essential to fostering multilateralism and international cooperation.

Given the strategic importance of governance reforms, we recognize that progress toward consensus should be made

in stages. In this context, we agree to develop as a first step a set of general principles to guide future discussions and

help foster convergence of views. Work on these principles should be completed in a timely manner to help ensure the

eﬃcient progression of future General Reviews of Quotas (GRQs), including under the 17 GRQ. Establishing these

guiding principles would help ensure that governance changes are gradual, widely acceptable, and reflective of the

interests of the entire membership, as well as maintain the Fund’s financial soundness.

The Way Forward

We agree that implementation of the 16 GRQ remains a priority. We recognize that realignment in quota shares should

aim at better reflecting members’ relative positions in the world economy, while protecting the voice of the poorest

members. To build consensus on future governance reforms, including under the 17 GRQ, we call on the Executive

Board to develop, by the 2026 Spring Meetings, a set of principles to guide future discussions on IMF quotas and

governance, drawing from the deliberations by IMFC Deputies during their meeting in Diriyah, Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia on April 6-7, 2025. We look forward to a discussion of the status of advancement of this work at our next

meeting. We ask our Deputies to prepare for this discussion.

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE

ATTENDANCE

Chair

Mohammed Aljadaan, Minister of Finance, Saudi Arabia

Managing Director

Kristalina Georgieva

Members or Alternates

Ayman Alsayari, Governor of the Saudi Central Bank, Saudi Arabia (Alternate for Mohammed Aljadaan, Minister of

Finance, Saudi Arabia)

Mohammed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Aﬀairs, United Arab Emirates

Edgar Amador Zamora, Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Mexico

Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury, United States

Edouard Normand Bigendako, Governor, Bank of the Republic of Burundi

Luis Caputo, Minister of Economy, Argentina

Tiﬀ Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada (Alternate for Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance,

Canada)

Sang Mok Choi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Republic of Korea

Giancarlo Giorgetti, Minister of Economy and Finance, Italy

Gabriel Galipolo, Governor, Central Bank of Brazil (Alternate for Fernando Haddad, Minister of Finance, Brazil)

Jan Jambon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Pensions, National Lottery and Federal Culture Institutions,

Belgium

Katsunobu Kato, Minister of Finance, Japan

Daniela Stoﬀel, State Secretary for International Finance, Federal Department of Finance, Switzerland (Alternate for Karin

Keller-Sutter, Minister of Finance, Switzerland)

Lesetja Kganyago, Governor, South African Reserve Bank, South Africa

Jörg Kukies, Federal Minister of the Ministry of Finance, Germany

François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France (Alternate for Eric Lombard, Minister for the Economy,

Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, France)

Adebayo Olawale Edun, Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Nigeria

Gongsheng Pan, Governor of the People's Bank of China

Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, H.M. Treasury, United Kingdom

Pavel Snisorenko, Director, Department of International Financial Relations (Alternate for Anton Siluanov, Minister of

Finance, Russian Federation)

Sanjay Malhotra, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (Alternate for Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, India)

Mehmet Simsek, Minister of Treasury and Finance, Republic of Türkiye

Salah-Eddine Taleb, Governor, Bank of Algeria

Perry Warjiyo, Governor, Bank of Indonesia

Ida Wolden Bache, Governor, Bank of Norway

Observers

Agustín Carstens, General Manager, Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

Elisabeth Svantesson, Chair, Development Committee (DC) and Minister for Finance, Sweden

Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank (ECB)

Valdis Dombrovskis, Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, European Commission (EC)

Klaas Knot, Chair, Financial Stability Board (FSB) and President of De Nederlandsche Bank

Celeste Drake, Deputy Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO)

Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Mohannad Alsuwaidan, Economic Analyst, Petroleum Studies Department, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting

Countries (OPEC)

Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, United Nations (UN)

Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, The World Bank (WB)