Wednesday, November 20

The economy faces “its biggest test” since World War II, says the IMF

Uno de los principales retos que el FMI ve es el de eliminar las barreras comerciales entre las potencias mundiales.
One of the main challenges that the IMF sees is to eliminate trade barriers between world powers.

Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS / Getty Images

Javier Zarain

Kristalina Georgieva, the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), assured that the world economy is facing “its greatest test” since World War II

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has aggravated the covid pandemic-05, one crisis after another, devastating lives, dragging down growth and raising inflation,” he said in a statement on the subject of the World Economic Forum, in Switzerland.

“We are facing a possible confluence of calamities” (…) “The world economy faces perhaps his greatest test
since World War II,” he noted.

Also asked to strengthen trade “by reducing trade barriers to alleviate shortages and lower food prices and other products”, as well as to “diversify imports”.

Kristalina Georgieva pointed out that the IMF had forecast last month an economic growth of 3.6% in 2022, which is “very far from a global recession”.

But he admitted that it will be “a difficult year” and that one of the main problems is the price of food, triggered in part by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The elites who meet each year to discuss ways to help save the world focused Wednesday on the future of Europe and the internet, on helping poor countries get medicine low cost and climate change, which included increasing corporate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Although many roundtables and announcements were expected, it is not clear how many concrete actions the summit produces.

Financial and bank managers Headquarters debated the effects of the tools at their disposal, while company heads voiced their concerns about the economic outlook.

Davos attendees are pessimistic about the economic outlook , judging by an informal poll during a session Monday on the global economy.

As the session began, a moderator asked the audience if they thought there was a chance of a recession . Most of the roughly 100 attendees raised their hands.

Although the IMF chief downplayed that concern, she did list a number of challenges: rising interest rates, inflation, a strong dollar, an economic slowdown in China, the climate crisis and a recent “bad run” of cryptocurrencies.

Others pointed out that the uncertainty in the financial markets complicates the investment decisions of companies.

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