IMF warns of inflation risks

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WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (AP): Global economic leaders warned of inflation risks in advanced countries on the eve of the first World Bank meetings since Robert Zoellick took charge of an institution shaken by internal divisions and scandal.
The International Monetary Fund's policy-setting committee on Saturday noted rising food and oil prices and other indications of inflation in urging finance ministers and central bankers to stay focused on achieving price stability as well as on smoothing global financial market turbulence.
With meetings of the IMF and the Group of 7 industrialized countries over, attention turned to Sunday's meeting of the IMF's sister organization, the World Bank, and its policy-setting committee.
Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state, trade representative and investment banker, took over from Paul Wolfowitz, a former defense secretary, who resigned in May in an ethics scandal.
Zoellick has been trying to "calm the waters" stirred by differences Wolfowitz had with some of the 185 member governments and the bank staff. A new strategy he has outlined would have the bank combat poverty, especially in Africa, help aid countries emerging from wars, and promote regional cooperation to combat disease and climate change.
Meetings opened with the G-7 countries - the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - pledging to limit the damage to the global economy caused when credit markets froze Aug. 9, triggered by troubles in the subprime U.S. mortgage market that spread to many other kinds of debt in the United States and other countries.
Washington police said protests of the World Bank and the IMF annual meetings were mostly peaceful so far, after a violent episode Friday night when a woman was hit on the head by a brick. Her injuries were unknown.
That happened in the upscale Georgetown neighborhood, 10 blocks east of the meeting site. Many of the delegates to the IMF and bank meetings stay and dine in Georgetown.
The IMF statement Saturday urged "continued vigilance to maintain well-functioning financial markets."
The ministers said they would continue "to work together to analyze the nature of the disturbances and consider lessons to be learned and actions needed to prevent further crises."
"The turbulence has revealed a number of problems that may be deeper than the specific episode that triggered the tensions," said Italian Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the new head of the IMF's policy-making committee.
The head of the IMF, Spain's Rodrigo de Rato, was optimistic despite the recent concerns about the credit market.
"The global economy is expanding from a solid foundation," he said.