© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the International Monetary Fund is seen during the group’s Annual Meetings in Washington, U.S., October 12, 2022. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan/File Photo
By Jorgelina do Rosario
LONDON (Reuters) – Global creditors are set to discuss how rating agencies arrive at some assessments for sovereign creditors’ ratings at a virtual meeting on Wednesday, two sources told Reuters.
The online workshop will focus specifically on rating action on sovereign creditors with regards to debt reprofiling, swaps, buy-backs and debt service suspension, the sources said, asking not to be named because the talks are private.
The Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable – which will include representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and Group of 20 (G20) major economies – will hold its first technical meeting of the year, ahead of the World Bank and IMF spring meetings in April.
Attendees will include representatives of official creditors and borrowing countries, debt experts, and financial and legal advisers, one source said, adding that rating agency officials were also invited.
Spokespersons for the IMF and the World Bank didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Similar previous meetings focused on the risks of local debt restructurings, comparability of treatment and cut-off dates, as consensus is needed on the starting date from which new loans are excluded from a restructuring.
The debt roundtable was formally launched in late-2022 amid continued delays in securing debt treatment for countries in default, such as Zambia, Ghana and Sri Lanka, that are in talks with a wide variety of stakeholders like the Paris Club, India and China – the world’s largest bilateral creditor.
The initiative is co-chaired by the IMF, World Bank and G20 presidency, currently Brazil.
