FM Arun Jaitley to leave on 7-day official visit to Canada, US

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will embark tomorrow on a 7-day official visit to Canada and the US to attend the annual meetings of World Bank and IMF and hold talks with global investors.

"FM@arunjaitley is leaving on a 7-day official visit to Canada & USA tomorrow early morning. He will return to national capital on October 10," the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet.

"On the first leg of his visit, FM will arrive in Canada tomorrow evening where he will hold meeting with foreign investors," it said in another tweet.

The Ministry further said, "During his US visit, FM will attend the Annual Meetings of the World Bank & IMF."

The three-day annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will begin on October 7 in Washington.

The new Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel is also likely to attend the Fund Bank meeting.

Besides Jaitley and Patel, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das will also attend the annual meetings.

Apart from taking stock of the global economic situation, the annual meetings are also likely to discuss IMF quota reforms, exchange rate fluctuation, infrastructure financing, fall out of Britain's exit from the EU and the role of trade in supporting global growth.

Ahead of the meeting, IMF will come out with its World Economic Outlook, which will provide analysis of the current global economic situation.

Besides, a Global Financial Stability Report will also be unveiled.

In July, IMF had cut global growth forecast for the year 2017 by 0.1 percentage point to 3.4 per cent citing substantial increase in economic, political and institutional uncertainty following Brexit which could have negative macro-economic consequences.

The global economy is projected to expand 3.1 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent in 2017. It had also trimmed India's growth forecast by 0.1 percentage point to 7.4 per cent for 2016 and 2017, attributing it to a sluggish investment recovery.