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The American secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, accused the IMF and the World Bank of “Mission Creep”, calling on them to step back “their tentacular and not focused agendas” on climate change and gender issues.
“The IMF and the World Bank have a sustainable value. But Mission Creep dropped these institutions,” said Bessent in Washington Wednesday in remarks that prevented that the United States could withdraw completely but clearly indicated the frustrations of the administration with the IMF in particular.
The remarks come as the finance ministers meet in Washington for the IMF and the World Bank spring meetings, in the midst of tensions on the role of the United States in the so-called Bretton Woods institutions.
The conservative program of the 2025 project recommends the United States – the largest shareholder in institutions – leave both.
Bessent insisted that institutions had “sustainable value”, reporting that Washington would remain involved. But he struck the recent changes in the fund in particular, saying that the United States and other countries “must do the IMF again.”
He said questions such as climate, gender and social subjects, which were an objective under the leadership of the Director General Kristalina Georgieva, were “not the Mission of the IMF”.
Bessent also pointed out that the fund was becoming too close to Beijing and said that a key report published last year fired “Pollyanna-ish” conclusions on imbalances in the world economy, where Washington thinks that China is the main culprit.
“We are open to criticism,” he said. “But we will not respect the IMF which will not criticize the countries which most need it – mainly excess countries like China which have exercised policies distorted on a global scale and opaque monetary practices for many decades.”
A spokesperson for the fund said: “We are impatient to continue our commitment to the American authorities on their IMF vision.”
Bessent also accused the World Bank of moving away “in certain respects of its initial mission”.
“The bank should no longer expect white checks for vaporous marketing and focused on fashionable words accompanied by commitments of the half-heart reform,” said Bessent.
He also called on the bank to be “neutral” and to invest in gas and other energy productions based on fossil fuel.
Ajay Banga, the president of the World Bank, said in an editorial of the Financial Times at the beginning of the month that his institution had spent the last two years refocusing his “basic mandate”.
The bank considers that its reform plans comply with what the Trump administration wish and the influential voices in the congress, like French Hill.
