China asks IMF to scrutinize rich countries’ fiscal risks
Updated: 3 hours ago
BANGKOK — China’s central bank governor has called for greater International Monetary Fund scrutiny of fiscal risk in major advanced economies, arguing that the consequences of their deficits and financial instability reach far beyond their borders.
ARCHIVE — People's Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng at a European Union meeting in 2023. Photo: European Union/Aaron Berkovich, CC BY 4.0. Not October 2026 Bangkok meeting. V9 cover uses a crop of this photograph. European Union / Aaron Berkovich · CC BY 4.0 · Archive, 2023
Speaking on Saturday at the International Monetary and Financial Committee meeting during the IMF–World Bank annual gatherings, People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng backed closer monitoring of sovereign fiscal risks and the global effects of financial-market turbulence.
The intervention comes as rising borrowing costs, persistently large fiscal deficits and heavy artificial-intelligence investment unsettle bond markets. Pan urged the IMF to pay more attention to financial factors, including cross-border capital flows, when assessing international imbalances.
He also reiterated China’s support for the multilateral trading system and opposition to protectionist measures. The argument implicitly shifts some of the analytical spotlight from developing economies onto the financial decisions of wealthy states whose currencies and debt markets exert worldwide influence.
Earlier in the week, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva urged China to rely less on exports and more on domestic consumption. That remains an important policy debate, but Beijing’s response points to a different question: how international institutions assess the risks generated by the richest economies themselves.
Financial surveillance cannot be credible if it treats the spillovers of advanced-country fiscal policy as secondary while demanding adjustment elsewhere. Pan’s intervention makes that asymmetry a live subject of discussion at the IMF.
Documentary photo credit: European Union / Aaron Berkovich, Pan Gongsheng, 2023. CC BY 4.0. Archival image, not the Bangkok meeting.
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