The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will discuss this weekend ways to improve its surveillance of the global economy, said IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato Friday.

"One change that we have made is the introduction of a new tool, Multilateral Consultation, in which particular issues of global or regional significance will be taken up comprehensively and collectively with some members, and, where relevant, with entities formed by groups of members," said Rato at a press conference here.

Rato said the IMF has already started multilateral consultations to complement its single-country studies.

"Our first multilateral consultation focuses on narrowing global payments imbalances while maintaining global growth," Rato told reporters.

The IMF has already held bilateral discussions with participants in the consultation: China, the euro area, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States, and over the coming months, will hold roundtable meetings with all of the participants together.

The IMF, which will hold its annual meeting with the World Bank in Singapore next week, said there is no "magic bullet" to reduce global imbalances.

"I'd like to emphasize an important point: global imbalances are a complex problem that took many years to build up. It would be unrealistic to expect the problem to be resolved through a magic bullet," said Rato.

Source: Xinhua