Analysis
The United States is the largest shareholder in both institutions, so its statement at the annual meetings signals the conditions it will press for. The message continues the administration's push to pull the IMF away from climate and development lending and toward balance-of-payments crises, and to push the World Bank's money toward the poorest countries and energy projects, including oil and gas.
On the IMF
Bessent said the IMF is making progress at "getting back to basics" but must go further on global imbalances, including analyzing how exchange rates and "non-market policies and practices" drive them [1]. He said new priorities should replace lower-value work rather than expand the Fund's agenda, citing financing through the Resilience and Sustainability Trust as lacking a clear link to balance-of-payments pressures [1].
He said the United States remains committed to a quota-based IMF and is still seeking congressional approval for the 16th General Review of Quotas [1].
On the World Bank
Bessent said the Bank should phase out lending to countries that long ago met its graduation criteria, calling the planned phase-outs for China and Poland "long overdue" but an important milestone [1]. He urged the Bank to formally drop its ban on financing upstream oil and gas, to reform procurement, and said its private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, has fallen short of a pledge to make 40% of new commitments in the poorest and most fragile countries [1].
On budgets
Bessent welcomed flat real administrative budgets at both institutions this fiscal year and called for indefinitely freezing or reducing their executive boards' budgets and salaries, which he put at more than $200 million a year combined [1]. He also called on the IMF to sell its interests in the Bretton Woods Recreation Center and the Concordia Hotel [1].
What remains uncertain
The statement sets out U.S. positions; the institutions' boards and other member countries decide policy, and the statement does not say what the United States would do if its requests are not met.