The governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Saturday called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to enhance its monitoring, analysis and forecasting of global and regional economies and financial markets.

Speaking at the 10th meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the policy-making body of the IMF, PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said surveillance is the Fund's core responsibility and the major means of assuring that IMF plays a key role in promoting the stability of the international monetary and financial system.

The IMF should steadily improve the quality of its surveillance and raise its effectiveness in response to changes in surveillance targets and their environments, said Zhou.

The IMF's surveillance priorities should continue to focus on assuring the macroeconomic, monetary and financial stability of member countries, all regions and even the world, he said. Economics and financial markets with a systemic impact -- particularly the major developed countries and the international centers -- need to be a priority of Fund's surveillance.

He called on the IMF to continue helping and supporting developing countries in promoting structural reform, enhancing capacity building, improving domestic markets and strengthening their financial sectors.

Zhou also said the IMF's most recent comprehensive reviews of means to help low-incoming countries (LICs) achieve economic growth and poverty reduction are highly significant.

The Chinese government continues to support the economic growth and poverty reduction in LICs and is actively contributing all it can to debt relief in the poor countries, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency October 3, 2004)