Is IMF relocation to China imminent?

They believe that the unprecedented tectonic shifts brought about by Covid-19 in the global economic hierarchy warrants such a possibility that China will overtake the US as the world's No.1 in the not-so-distant future.

The latest projections by the IMF that China will be the only major global economy to record a growth while the rest of the world, including the current global economic superpower US, would contract, has triggered a wave of speculation and assumptions that there is indeed a big possibility as per the IMF's founding rules.

Dr Tharoor, a former United Nations undersecretary and a prominent think-tank and writer, has ignited the speculation with his tweet.

"The International Monetary Fund's by-laws specify that its headquarters will be located in the world's largest economy. For 75 years this placed it in Washington, DC. With the way the US & Chinese economies are moving after #Covid-19, is the IMF's relocation to Beijing imminent?"

In the latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF has projected China's economy, already the second-largest in nominal terms and the largest on purchasing power parity basis, to grow by 1.9 per cent this year, 0.9 percentage points above the IMF's June forecast projecting a positive growth despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The US economy is expected to contract 4.3 per cent in 2020. China's growth will accelerate to 8.4 per cent next year, compared to 3.1 per cent for the US.