The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee will embark on a week-long visit to the United States from September 21 to attend the 2011 Annual IMF World Bank meetings, which are scheduled September 23-25 at Washington.

He will lead the Indian delegation that would comprise the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Dr D Subbarao besides senior officials from the finance ministry and RBI, official sources said.

This will also be the first time that Mr Mukherjee will personally interact with the IMF Managing Director, Ms Christine Lagarde after she assumed charge at the helm of this multilateral lending institution.

At this year’s IMF-World Bank annual meetings, member countries are expected to discuss the critical challenges facing the global economy. Ms Lagarde had in a speech at London on Friday underscored the need for countries to act now-and act boldly-to steer their economies through this dangerous new phase of the recovery.

"The world is collectively suffering from a crisis of confidence, in the face of a deteriorating economic outlook and rising concerns about the health of sovereigns and banks. All this is happening at a time when the scope for policy action is considerably narrower than when the crisis first erupted. But while the policy options may be fewer, there is a path to recovery", Ms Lagarde said.

Although the tools have become fewer, policymakers do still have options to support the recovery, she noted.

Mr Mukherjee will begin his US visit with an address at an investors forum organised by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) in New York on September 21. He will also address the India-US CEO Forum at Washington on September 22 besides attending BRICS Finance Ministers meeting on the same day.

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