The highpoints of the forum is a meeting of the 24-member International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) on Saturday April 24, and a joint World Bank –IMF Development Committee (DC) on Sunday.

Governor Cabraal will chair a meeting of 'SAACR Finance' a grouping of central bank chiefs of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation.

At the main meetings itself the global economic slump and attempts to revive activity will take centre stage.

Sri Lanka will express support and encourage attempts by developed nations to stimulate their own economies, Cabraal told LBO.

"What poorer countries can do is limited," he said.

"If richer countries can successfully stimulate their economies, which is what Europe and the US is already doing, we will get immediate benefits."

To develop domestic-oriented economy or successfully 'stimulate' an economy through looser policy (money printing) a country has to run a floating exchange rate backed by domestic assets in the form of government debt.

But many poor countries do not have the institutional capacity to operate a floating exchange and instead settled for unstable pegged exchange rates backed by foreign assets.

Small countries in particular find it difficult to practically difficult to operate floating exchange rates mostly due to their size.

Even China, which is big enough, has chosen to run a pegged exchange rate, limiting the consumption of its own citizens by 'sterilizing' foreign exchange inflows and sending them out of the country through a build up of foreign reserves.

Even a run-down of foreign reserves do not add to net global consumption as externally invested money has to be brought back to the country from outside.

Countries with pegged exchange rates, which favour the development of export-import development, including Singapore and Sri Lanka have suffered steep declines in export demand.