High level Conference of the Paris Forum

The Paris Forum, an informal body gathering sovereign lenders and borrowers willing to discuss challenges related to sovereign debt issues, organized on May 7th 2019, with the support of the Japanese G20 Presidency, a high level conference on how to ensure sound and sustainable financing for development.

This Conference brought together more than sixty international decision-makers, including around forty countries represented by some thirty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors as well as Heads of International Financial Institutions, in particular, Christine Lagarde, Managing director of the IMF ; David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group and Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD, and Senior Representatives from the civil society (academics, NGOs) and the private sector.

Participants discussed the best ways to meet the financing needs of developing countries and how to reach sustainable development goals, while keeping debt on a sustainable path and ensuring a level playing field for all actors.

Rising debt vulnerabilities worldwide, and notably in developing countries, is a growing source of concern for the international community. This conference allowed participants to build a common understanding on debt vulnerabilities and deliver recommendations to promote a sound and sustainable financing of development.

Conclusions from this high level conference will feed into the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting, to be held in Fukuoka on 8-9th June 2019, as well as the joint IMF-World Bank agenda on debt vulnerabilities.

The video of the conference can be found here (to get the original or English version, click on the flag at the top right of the video): https://www.tresor.economie.gouv.fr/Articles/2019/05/13/conference-de-haut-niveau-du-forum-de-paris

In addition, a recent publication made by academics on debt restructuring is available at the following address: https://piie.com/publications/working-papers/how-restructure-sovereign-debt-lessons-four-decades