Representatives of Eesti Pank and the Ministry of Finance participated in the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and the Development Committee (DC) of the World Bank held in Washington on October 11-13.

As expected, the main issue of the annual meetings was the situation of the global economy and the financial system in light of the recent market shocks. The principal result of the meetings was the agreement that closer cooperation is needed to restore the trust of financial markets and resolve the financial crisis. The main topic of the meetings the Ministry of Finance and Governor of Eesti Pank held with the Managing Director of the IMF and the Estonian mission was the situation of the Estonian economy and the financial market. "From the Estonian side, we re-emphasised that the pillars of our economy have remained strong also in the period of economic adjustment, the financial standing of the banks operating in Estonia continues to be sound and their capitalisation and buffers for coping with possible loan losses are good. The Estonian banking sector is fully integrated into the Nordic banking system, which means cross-border cooperation between Nordic and Baltic countries is of high importance in order to ensure the reliability of banks," said Andres Lipstok, Governor of Eesti Pank. The Minister of Finance Ivari Padar stressed in his speech held at a plenary session on behalf of Nordic and Baltic countries that it is necessary to ensure that the short-term financial market problems are solved, but longer-term issues should also not be forgotten. "There is no doubt that the stabilisation of financial markets is the principal task for almost all countries. At the same time, we must not reject our obligations regarding the aiding of less developed countries and cooperation in the field of development," said Ivari Padar. Estonia took an important step in this direction itself, joining the International Development Association. The Estonian delegation had also meetings with representatives of rating agencies and international banks. These included speaking about the Estonian economic situation and it was affirmed both our economic policy and the financial system are reliable.

The IMFC is an advisory body of the IMF supervising the development of the international monetary and financial system. The IMFC meetings take place biannually and are attended by, in addition to the committee's own members, representatives from the IMF member countries and international organisations. The Development Committee is a similar advisory body with the World Bank.