The head of the International Monetary Fund said after widespread protests that the time has come for China to move away from mass lockdowns and move towards a more targeted approach to COVID-19, a change that has already Is struggling, will reduce the impact on the world economy. With high inflation, an energy crisis and disrupted food supplies.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged a “recalibration” of China’s tough “zero-covid” approach aimed at isolating each case “precisely because of the impact on both people and the economy.”
Georgieva made the comments in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, in which she also warned that it was too early for the US Federal Reserve to hold back on raising its interest rates and expressed hope that Russia’s war on energy could worsen the crisis. has gone. Problem ukraine Will accelerate renewable energy in Europe. He also called the growing hunger in developing countries “the world’s most important solvable problem”.
In China, protests broke out over the weekend in several cities and Hong Kong in the biggest show of public discontent in decades. Authorities have eased some controls but have shown no sign of backing down from their sweeping strategy that has confined millions of people to their homes for months.
“We see the importance of moving away from mass lockdowns, very targeted restrictions,” Georgieva said in Berlin on Tuesday. “So that targeting would allow stopping the spread of COVID without significant economic costs.”
Georgieva also urged China to look at vaccination policies and focus on vaccinating the “most vulnerable”.
Low vaccination rates among the elderly are a key reason why Beijing has resorted to lockdowns, while the emergence of more-infectious variants has increased pressure on the effort to contain any spread.
The lockdown has slowed everything from travel to retail traffic to car sales in the world’s second-largest economy. Georgieva urged “adjusting a holistic approach to how China assesses supply chain functioning with an eye on its impact on the rest of the world.”
The Washington-based IMF had expected the Chinese economy to grow only 3.2% this year, well below the global average for the year, a rare occurrence.
The Communist Party has taken steps towards Georgieva’s recommendation, switching to isolating buildings or neighborhoods from infection rather than entire cities, and making other changes it says aim to reduce the human and economic cost. But a surge in infections since October has prompted local officials under pressure from above to impose quarantines and other restrictions that residents say are excessive.
Asked about criticism of the crackdown on the protests, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman defended Beijing’s anti-virus strategy and said the public’s legal rights were protected by law.
Zhao Lijian said, the government is trying to provide maximum protection to people’s life and health while minimizing the impact of COVID on social and economic development.
While China’s policy is spreading around the world, Georgieva said the biggest risk facing the global economy is high inflation, which requires central banks to raise interest rates, making debt higher for consumers and businesses. it happens. It gets expensive. At the same time governments need to take care of the most vulnerable without undermining the central bank’s efforts with excessive spending.
“Policymakers are facing a very difficult time in the year ahead,” she said. “They have to be disciplined in the fight against inflation. Why? Because inflation weakens the foundation of development and poor people suffer the most.
Asked whether the US Federal Reserve should halt interest rate hikes that are strengthening the dollar and putting pressure on poor countries, Georgieva said, “The Fed has the right to stay the course until a credible decline in inflation.” is the power of.” There is no other option.”
The Bulgarian IMF chief said, “They owe it to the US economy, they owe it to the world economy, because what happens in the United States if inflation doesn’t get under control can affect the rest of the world.” Is.” ,
Georgieva said inflation figures in the US and Europe are still very high and “at this point the data says: it is too early to retreat.”
She warned that international tensions between China and the West and between Russia and the West threaten to limit trade and its beneficial effects on economic growth and prosperity. He said that while there is concern about supply chain disruptions from the pandemic, “we will have to work hard to find a way to counter these protectionist tendencies” while being honest about supply concerns.
Georgieva said the world was already seeing signs of a rise in hunger even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted grain supplies in Africa and the Middle East. More investment in resilient agriculture and support for smallholder farmers as well as efforts to reduce food waste will be part of the solution, he said.
“We have to admit in the wealthiest societies, in wealthy families, that we waste food on a daily basis, even in amounts that are enough to feed the rest of the world,” she said. “Look, hunger is the biggest solvable problem in the world. It is solvable. And yet not only have we not solved it, but the hunger has been growing over the years.
The world “needs to focus on food security in a comprehensive way that reduces waste, increases productivity, and most importantly focuses more on small-scale farming, where people’s livelihoods depend.” does.” A large part of the world, especially developing countries, has a long way to go toward ending this solvable problem,” she said.
Russia’s war also sparked an energy crisis when Moscow cut off most natural gas supplies to Europe as Western allies supported war-torn Ukraine. The resulting higher energy prices have created an opportunity to “accelerate the transition to low carbon energy supplies” through incentives for green investment.
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