Italy G20 presidency to push for debt relief, new IMF drawing rights | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Sunday
July 06, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
SUNDAY, JULY 06, 2025
Italy G20 presidency to push for debt relief, new IMF drawing rights

World+Biz

Reuters
29 January, 2021, 08:25 pm
Last modified: 29 January, 2021, 08:29 pm

Related News

  • Italy needs to upgrade ageing stadiums for club revenue boost, Euro 2032
  • Negative reporting forced govt to clarify NBR reform plans to IMF: Finance adviser
  • Separation of NBR crucial to boost revenue collection: IMF
  • Record $30b remittance lifts reserves to $26b
  • IMF lowers Bangladesh's GDP growth for FY26 to 5.4%

Italy G20 presidency to push for debt relief, new IMF drawing rights

Italy was also confident the Biden presidency would herald a more cooperative stance from the United States on international financial cooperation

Reuters
29 January, 2021, 08:25 pm
Last modified: 29 January, 2021, 08:29 pm
FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy, January 26, 2021. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy, January 26, 2021. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo

Italy, this year's president of the Group of 20 rich and emerging nations, will push its members to extend debt relief to poor countries struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, a top official from Rome's G20 financial team told Reuters.

Italy was also confident the Biden presidency would herald a more cooperative stance from the United States on international financial cooperation, particularly in areas such as climate change and helping the poorest states.

"We must grant fiscal space to the low income countries in greatest difficulty," said Gelsomina Vigliotti, Italy's Treasury director general for International Financial Relations, setting out the country's priorities for its presidency in an interview.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Vigliotti said Italy, which took the helm of the G20 in December, would push to extend until end-year the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) freezing bilateral debt-service payments for more than 40 countries.

Restrictions enacted to combat the pandemic have hit poor countries especially hard and threaten to push millions into extreme poverty. Many countries that already faced crushing debt levels before the crisis have to restructure their loans or face default.

The DSSI, promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and agreed by the G20, was introduced in May last year and is currently due to expire this June.

"Debt will certainly be a very important theme of the Italian presidency," Vigliotti said.

To further help poor countries, Italy will also urge the G20 to back the new issuance of $500 billion of the IMF's own currency, known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the Italian G20 official said, describing this as "an absolute priority."

Donald Trump's previous U.S. administration had blocked the idea of a new SDR issuance, a move akin to a central bank printing money, saying it would provide more resources to richer countries because their allocation would be proportionate to their IMF shareholding.

Vigliotti rejected this argument, saying rich countries that don't need their allotted SDRs can give them back to the IMF facility that can in turn lend to poor ones.

"The goal is to ensure a new allocation of SDRs are made available to the countries most in need," she said, adding that there was a "general consensus" on the subject within the G20.

"We count on the fact the new (Joe) Biden administration will have a different attitude on the issue," she said.

Separately, a French G20 official also told Reuters that Paris was encouraged by signs that Biden will not block new SDRs as Trump did.

In general, the United States' change of government has already had a "tangible" impact on G20 affairs, Vigliotti said, with a more constructive and multilateral approach to climate change and sustainable financial investment.

Italy's G20 presidency has got off to a rocky start with the collapse of the government in Rome when a junior partner pulled out of the ruling coalition. Vigliotti played down the domestic political turmoil, saying it would not change the country's G20 programme already agreed with its partners.

Favouring a fairer and more sustainable international tax system will be another priority of the Italian presidency, she said.

Rome hopes to broker a broad agreement by June on the taxation of digital economy and global minimum corporate taxation levels, she said, based on preparatory work carried out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"Failure to reach a deal would have negative consequences, it would weaken confidence in the ability to find multilateral solutions," she warned.

Italy / G20 / Presidency / push / Debt relief / IMF

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • NGO leaders from different Muslim countries pose for a photo with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus at the state guest house Jamuna in Dhaka on 6 July 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    CA Yunus urges Islamic NGOs to take up social business to support Muslim world
  • National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam spoke at a street march as part of NCP's ongoing programme 'Desh Gorte July Padayatra' (July Walkathon for Building the Nation) at Saheb Bazar Zeo Point of Rajshahi today (6 July). Photo: TBS
    Conquered Ganobhaban, will triumph in parliament too: Nahid
  • Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher. File Photo: Collected
    No objection to February polls but oppose a hastily arranged one: Jamaat

MOST VIEWED

  • The release was jointly carried out by the Forest Department and the Chattogram Zoo authorities as part of an ongoing initiative to conserve wildlife and maintain ecological balance. Photo: Collected
    33 Python hatchlings born in Ctg zoo released into Hazarikhil sanctuary
  • File photo of a new NBR office in Agargaon, Dhaka. Photo: UNB
    NBR launches 'a-Chalan' for instant online tax payments
  • Customs bureaucracy: Luxury cars rot at Ctg port
    Customs bureaucracy: Luxury cars rot at Ctg port
  • Infograph: TBS
    How BB’s floating rate regime calms forex market
  • Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed talks to reporters in Brahmanbaria on Saturday, 5 July 2025. Photo: TBS
    Raising savings certificate interest rates will hurt banks: Finance adviser
  • Saleudh Zaman
    ‘We are dying’: Adverse policies drive most textile millers to edge, say industry leaders

Related News

  • Italy needs to upgrade ageing stadiums for club revenue boost, Euro 2032
  • Negative reporting forced govt to clarify NBR reform plans to IMF: Finance adviser
  • Separation of NBR crucial to boost revenue collection: IMF
  • Record $30b remittance lifts reserves to $26b
  • IMF lowers Bangladesh's GDP growth for FY26 to 5.4%

Features

Students of different institutions protest demanding the reinstatement of the 2018 circular cancelling quotas in recruitment in government jobs. Photo: Mehedi Hasan

5 July 2024: Students announce class boycott amid growing protests

1d | Panorama
Contrary to long-held assumptions, Gen Z isn’t politically clueless — they understand both local and global politics well. Photo: TBS

A misreading of Gen Z’s ‘political disconnect’ set the stage for Hasina’s ouster

2d | Panorama
Graphics: TBS

How courier failures are undermining Bangladesh’s online perishables trade

2d | Panorama
The July Uprising saw people from all walks of life find themselves redrawing their relationship with politics. Photo: Mehedi Hasan

Red July: The political awakening of our urban middle class

2d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Karbala; one of the saddest and most tragic events in Islamic history

Karbala; one of the saddest and most tragic events in Islamic history

39m | TBS Stories
News of The Day, 06 JULY 2025

News of The Day, 06 JULY 2025

2h | TBS News of the day
Govt Service Ordinance: Compulsory retirement to replace dismissal for misconduct in govt job

Govt Service Ordinance: Compulsory retirement to replace dismissal for misconduct in govt job

4h | TBS Insight
Iran’s Khamenei makes first public appearance since war with Israel

Iran’s Khamenei makes first public appearance since war with Israel

5h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net