The World Bank and the IMF: still fit for purpose?

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The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank hosted their annual meetings in Washington this week, on the 80th anniversary of their foundation at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire. But the mood was hardly celebratory, said David Lawder on Reuters. Global finance chiefs gathered “amid intense uncertainty over wars in the Middle East and Europe, a flagging Chinese economy and worries that a coin-toss US presidential election could ignite new trade battles”.

The IMF’s latest world economic outlook was underwhelming, with an unchanged prediction of 3.2% global growth in 2024. The Fund projects it will fade to a “mediocre” 3.1% in five years – “well below its pre-pandemic trend”. And the IMF predicts global public debt will, alarmingly, exceed $100 trillion by year-end. “Our forecasts point to an unforgiving combination of low growth and high debt – a difficult future,” said IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.

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