Launch this Thursday of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), after the publication of growth hopes on Tuesday, in a busy climate. The update of global economic data will mark the official start of the meetings at the headquarters of the two institutions in Washington.
Already, the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, has given an idea of ??the trend. It forecasts global growth below 3%. In itself, nothing exceptional: during the last update, in January, the IMF was already forecasting growth at 2.9%, the Bank revealing itself to be even more pessimistic, according to its president, David Malpass. “Global growth is expected to be weak this year, at 2%,” Malpass said in a press conference call on Monday, a slightly higher estimate for the WB, however, as it forecast 1.7% for 2023. in January.
But this is likely to last, with the Fund not allowing global growth to exceed 3% on average annually by 2028, or, as Ms. Georgieva recalled, “our weakest medium-term outlook since 1990”. At the end of March, the WB was even more negative, expecting annual global growth of 2.2% on average by 2030, the weakest decade for more than forty years.
These subjects will be among the main ones discussed during these spring meetings, and a first series of announcements to be made on this occasion, in particular concerning the borrowing capacities of the BM and its subsidiaries, assured AFP Ms Yellen. . This will not prevent the IFIs from stressing several other points of concern, starting with the risks of destabilization of the financial sector, if the fight against inflation pushes the central banks to raise their rates further. David Malpass thus recalled the “long-term risks caused by the gap between the zero-interest assets of the last decade and those of the last few months, after the rate hike”??? which will take time to “digest.”
Reducing inflation remains the priority, insisted Thursday Kristalina Georgieva, for whom central banks “must do more to guarantee financial stability”.