Washington (Reuters) – The president of the Banque de France (BDF), François Villeroy de Galhau, called on Tuesday to preserve the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, even if the two institutions based in Washington are focusing on a reduced range of questions, such as financial stability.

A shadow hangs over the future of the IMF and the World Bank, whose semi -annual meetings take place this week, after the administration of US President Donald Trump said they examined his commitment to all multilateral institutions.

The United States is the main contributor to the IMF and the World Bank.

François Villeroy de Galhau said that the two institutions, pillars of the world liberal order, were to continue to exist.

“Preserve multilateral institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, which were born and have their headquarters in this large country, with more targeted ambitions,” he said in an upstream speech of spring meetings in Washington.

The framework of what he described as “a pragmatic multilateralism” is quite wide, including “financial stability, cross-border and cryptoactive payments, cybersecurity, fight against financial crime and prevention of extreme climatic incidents”, he detailed before the association of foreign policy, in New York.

François Villeroy de Galhau has also reiterated the forecast of the Banque de France according to which the so -called reciprocal customs taxes announced on April 2 by Donald Trump – suspended for three months – will make growth back in the euro zone of at least 25 base points this year.

Noting that the repercussions of these customs duties on inflation were “more uncertain”, he stressed that they should be “negative as a whole”.

(Francesco Canepa and Andrea Shalal; Jean Terzian)

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