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WASHINGTON, Oct 11 Reuters The U.S. Treasury39;s top economic diplomat on Friday called on the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks to work on new ways to provide shortterm liquidity support to low and middleincome countries to head off debt crises.

Jay Shambaugh, the Treasury39;s undersecretary for international finance, told an Atlantic Council event that the Treasury was working with these institutions to find a better path for countries with high but sustainable debts that face liquidity pressures.

Shambaugh, who oversees the dominant U.S. shareholdings in the IMF and World Bank, said he hoped that the institutions could make progress at their annual meetings later this month in developing new mechanisms and program design changes that meet the needs of a vast number of countries dealing with temporary shocks.

Lowincome countries average annual spending on debt service has jumped to 60 billion from about 20 billion between 2010 and 2020, which could put the global debt architecture under significant strain as some countries face significant principal repayments in coming months, Shambaugh said.

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