US Treasury Sec Yellen: Much IMF, World Bank and G20 focus this week on Russia's war in Ukraine

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said that a significant amount of the focus at this week's IMF, World Bank and G20 meetings has been on Russia's "reckless, devastating" war in Ukraine, reported Reuters. 

Additional Takeaways:

• Shared the US's commitment for another $500 million in aid to be sent to Ukraine with the Ukrainian Prime Minister. 
• Ukraine needs urgent will deploy aid as quickly as possible. 
• The US and its allies agreed to tighten the vice of sanctions against Russia. 
• The US is doing everything it can to address food security risks from the Ukraine war. 
• A top priority is to end the Covid-19 pandemic and overcome the hurdles of vaccinating the world population. 
• An objective with sanctions on Russia has been to impose maximum pain on Russia while mitigating the impact on US allies. 
• The US needs to be careful about a complete European ban on imports of Russian energy as this would increase oil prices. 
• The proceeds from oil and gas sales are an important revenue source for Russia and it would be desirable to reduce those. 
• There will be more specific details on bolstering food supplies in the coming weeks. 
• Measures on supply and demand side are important for food security. 
• US supply chains are not secure and are not resilient. 
• Producing everything at home would be more expensive. Ideally, trusted partners could help provide efficiencies.