World Bank and IMF to hold spring meetings from April 18-24

Meetings will be held in hybrid format and those attending can participate in person or virtually

A pedestrian walks past the IMF headquarters in Washington. AFP

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that their 2022 spring meetings will take place from April 18-24.

The meetings will be held in a hybrid format and those attending can participate in person or virtually.

Public events — including seminars, civil society organisation engagements and press conferences — will be virtual and accessible on IMF and World Bank digital platforms, the entities said in a statement.

“To accommodate time differences, events may take place in the week before and after the spring meetings,” the groups said.

“The IMF and WBG will continue to monitor the worldwide health situation and if needed, amend this plan in accordance with relevant [WHO and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention] guidance.”

The spring meetings typically gather thousands of government officials from member countries, journalists and businesspeople at the organisations' headquarters, located a few blocks from the White House in Washington.

This is not the first time the IMF and World Bank are taking measures to amend the format of the meetings.

In 2020, they adopted a virtual format due to Covid concerns. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, the organisations postponed the event and moved policy meetings to another location.

Last month, the World Bank and the IMF announced that their joint annual meeting would be held in Washington in October, not Morocco, as planned. The meetings were originally scheduled to be held in Marrakech but organisers changed the venue because of “continuing uncertainty over the Covid pandemic”.