IMF : Eurozone policymakers need to provide crisis solutions

A senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official on Friday urged eurozone policymakers to provide a clear picture of how to tackle the eurozone debt turmoil. Zhu Min, deputy managing director of IMF, also said global collaboration is needed to contain the eurozone debt crisis. The eurozone debt turmoil was more or less a global crisis that needed global efforts to address the challenge, but eurozone leaders should endeavor to chart the course of how to solve the problem first, Zhu said at the ongoing APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) CEO Summit 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii. "There is a consensus that we need two firewalls" to protect the real economy and to stop the contagion triggered by the eurozone debt and banking stress, he noted. The proposal made by APEC members' finance ministers that an infrastructure fund to be created to shore up future investments was important, he told a group of corporate executives, experts and reporters at a panel discussion. It is extremely important to make sure the real economy would be well financed and not be hit hard by the financial turmoil, Zhu stressed. A string of APEC meetings, including the Economic Leaders' Meeting, the Ministerial Meeting, the Finance Ministerial Meeting, the Business Advisory Council and the CEO Summit, will be held here this week. To contain risks stemming from the eurozone debt turmoil, European leaders on October 26 agreed on a policy framework to restore debt sustainability in Greece, recapitalize European banks, strengthen the firewall against financial contagion, and lay the foundation for robust economic governance in the region. However, investors have not fully bought the plan as the details of the framework still need to be hammered out.