TheCable

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group says its spring meetings scheduled to hold in April will be held virtually.

The meeting, which gathers delegates from at least 189 countries across the world, was scheduled to hold in Washington.

Kristalina Georgieva and David Malpass, IMF managing director and World Bank president, said the decision was necessary considering the health concerns resulting from the coronavirus outbreak.

“Like everyone else around the world, we have been deeply concerned by the evolving situation of the coronavirus and the human tragedy surrounding it.

“Given growing health concerns related to the virus, the management of the IMF and World Bank Group and their executive boards have agreed to implement a joint plan to adapt the 2020 IMF-World Bank spring meetings to a virtual format.

“We remain fully committed to maintaining a productive dialogue with our stakeholders and will leverage our IT-related and virtual connection capabilities to the fullest to hold our essential policy consultations with the membership.”

The Bretton Wood institutions said the programme of events scheduled for April has been cancelled and are expected to return to regular format at the October annual meetings.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there were 90,893 reported cases of coronavirus globally and 3110 deaths.

Five of those cases are in Africa with Nigeria accounting for one.