On October 15, 2021, a Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), together with representatives from the Ministry of Finance, attended the roundtable meeting between the General Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers of ASEAN Member States. This is an event within the framework of the IMF/WBG 2021 Annual Meetings and was chaired by the IMF General Director Kristalina Georgieva.
Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh at the Meeting
Also attending the Meeting, there were representatives of the Central Banks and the Ministries of Finance of ASEAN Member States as well as the IMF Departments' leaders. Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's Meeting continued to be held virtually.
The IMF General Director delivered the opening speech on the divergence of the post-pandemic world economic recovery as well as the impacts of the normalization of the monetary policy in the developed economies. The rapid spread of the Delta variant and the threats of new and more dangerous variants have increased the uncertainties about how quickly the consequences of the pandemic can be overcome, especially in the context that the ASEAN region has been seriously affected by the latest wave of COVID-19. The emerging markets and the developing economies are projected to experience long-lasting output losses as compared to pre-pandemic time due to the relatively slow implementation of vaccination programs in most of those countries and much fewer support packages than the developed economies. According to the latest updated IMF's World Economic Outlook, the world GDP growth in 2021 could reach 5.9% (down by 0.1% as compared to the April 2021 Outlook) and in 2022 it could reach 4.9% (up by 0.5% as compared to the April 2021 Outlook). According to this report, Vietnam's GDP in 2021 could grow at 3.8%, and in 2022 it could increase to 6.6% (down by 2.7% and 0.6% respectively as compared to the April 2021 Outlook).
An overview of the Meeting
At the Meeting, Mr. Changyong Rhee, Director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department (APD), shared more specifically about the regional outlook, focusing on the vaccination campaigns in the region. Later, Ms. Gita Gopinath, the IMF Chief Economist, made some comments about the effects of the normalization of the monetary policy in the developed economies on the ASEAN region, and the use of financial instruments of the Integrated Policy Framework to manage the challenges. Next, the IMF General Director and the ASEAN Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers shared more about their experiences with effective intervention policies.
Toward the end of the Meeting, the representatives of the ASEAN Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers all expressed their hopes that the IMF would continue to accompany and support ASEAN Member States through enhancing the policy tools, improving the governance and supervision frameworks in the new situation.
Le Hang