Siluanov urges IMF to tighten oversight of lending programmes

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has proposed specific corrective measures for countries that repeatedly breach IMF lending conditions, according to his statement ahead of the International Monetary and Financial Committee meeting.

Siluanov argued that the fund should focus on its economic mandate of macroeconomic analysis, lending and capacity development. In his assessment, attention to supplementary policy areas has weakened those core functions.

He said the largest borrowers had remained unchanged for five years and that more than 90% of outstanding credit was owed by countries indebted to the fund for over six years. He argued that repeated lending to the same states constrained support for more vulnerable countries.

The statement cited an assessment of programmes between 2002 and 2024: breaches recurred in 56% of programmes where countries had been granted waivers from quantitative performance criteria. Siluanov proposed measurable corrective actions with defined deadlines in such cases.

He accepted that some flexibility could be justified during shocks but opposed tailoring rules to individual borrowers and front-loading most financing in higher-risk programmes.

He separately called for closer surveillance of countries issuing reserve currencies and analysis of their policies' cross-border effects.

The committee meets in Bangkok during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings on October 15–17. Siluanov also plans to attend a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors.