IMF management, board have no role in statements issued after a country surveillance mission -spokesman

The management and board of the IMF have no role in preparing the concluding statement issued after a surveillance mission to a country, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday, after Reuters reported that a draft sentence critical of Japan's financing of high-emissions coal projects was deleted from a Jan. 28 statement.

International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice told Reuters that the fund did not comment on leaks of draft documents. But he said the Jan. 28 statement issued by staff after a mission to Japan did include "robust analysis on the issue of climate change."