Michael Noonan to meet investors ahead of World Bank and IMF summits

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is meeting investors and members of the media in New York before flying to Washington for the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It is expected that the health of the Irish economy and the implications of Britain's exit from the European Union will be discussed, while White House plans for changes to US tax policy and their potential impact on Ireland are also likely to be on the agenda.

A series of investor meetings has been organised by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) in New York on the Minister's behalf. Mr Noonan will also talk to the media as part of the trip.

Central bankers and finance ministers from around the world are gathering in Washington this week to discuss the state of the global economy and how to keep another post-crisis recovery from stalling.

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Mr Noonan has a number of engagements at the World Bank/IMF event in Washington on Thursday and Friday. Central Bank governor Philip Lane is understood to be in attendance, while Central Bank deputy governor Sharon Donnery will speak at an IMF-hosted session entitled Central Bankers and Inclusive Growth on Saturday.

There is a lot of uncertainty overshadowing this week’s spring meetings. The US is the largest shareholder of both the IMF and the World Bank and last year’s election of Donald Trump put an outspoken critic of multilateralism and the US-led liberal economic order in the White House.

Financial crisis

The new US administration’s plans for the institutions remain unclear, especially amid signs that moderates within the White House are exerting more influence over economic policy. However, Mr Trump’s arrival in Washington is already having consequences for both the IMF and the World Bank and forcing their leaderships to adapt.

The 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath gave new relevance to an IMF that for years had been facing questions about its role in the global economy.

The fund has not only had a new raft of bailouts to administer but under the leadership of Christine Lagarde for the past five years it has also dealt with subjects that might once have seemed taboo, such as inequality, the macroeconomics of gender equality and climate change. It has given emerging powers such as China a greater voice and, increasingly, a seal of approval.

However, in Mr Trump and his Republican administration the IMF now has a sceptic in the boardroom and there is plenty of potential for conflict.

Wilbur Ross, Mr Trump’s commerce secretary, has already taken exception to Ms Lagarde’s recent warnings about the damage a return to protectionism would do to the global economy.

Steven Mnuchin, the new treasury secretary, has called for the IMF to step up its vigilance over currency manipulation, particularly in regard to China.

At the World Bank, if all had gone to plan, this week would be all about laying the groundwork for a capital increase and an expansive agenda for Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank’s president. But Mr Trump’s election has thrown that into doubt.

Mr Kim, who was nominated by the Obama administration and re-elected to a second five-year term last summer, has pushed the World Bank into areas that may lead to clashes with the Trump administration.

The bank is, for example, now the largest funder of climate-related investments in the world, Mr Kim said in a London speech recently, something that is unlikely to win points with a climate change sceptic such as the new US president.

– Additional reporting: The Financial Times Limited 2017