Photo: ARND WIEGMANN/REUTERS/Deutsche Welle
The Davos regulars return this Monday (16.01.2023) to an environment that is already familiar to them. Of course, the green meadows of last year, when the summit of the World Economic Forum was held in May, are covered with snow. Although time has changed since last year’s edition, the issues under discussion remain the same: the war in Ukraine and its consequences are expected to once again dominate the agenda.
Attended by world political and business leaders, celebrities and prominent social activists, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) comes at a time when the global economy is under extreme pressure. High inflation, the energy crisis and disruptions to other supplies, caused by the war, are adding to a resurgence of the pandemic in China.
“Economic, environmental, social and geopolitical crises are converging and merging, creating an extremely volatile and uncertain future,” WEF founder Klaus Schwab told reporters. “The Davos annual meeting will try to make sure that leaders don’t get caught up in this crisis mentality.”
Scholz and Von der Leyen’s participation
The five-day meeting (from 4 pm to 20 January), which is convened under the motto “Cooperation in a fragmented world”, will include the participation of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, of more than fifty heads of state and government, among them, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, (who stated last year in Davos that “we cannot allow Putin to win the war”) and the Spanish Pedro Sánchez. A record of 56 finance ministers and a total of 19 central bank governors.
Some recently elected leaders such as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are also expected. The African contingent will be led by the President of South Africa., Cyril Ramaphosa, and his Tanzanian counterpart, Samia Suluhu Hassan. The United States will be represented by President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
There will be no Russian participation, as the country’s politicians and business leaders continue to be excluded from the meeting. The WEF froze its ties with Russian entities last year, after Moscow invaded Ukraine. This country, on the other hand, will once again send a high-level delegation. However, the organizers declined to share any further details for security reasons.
The challenge of avoiding a recession
The 53rd edition of the Davos meeting takes place in the midst of one of the economic slowdowns steepest this century and the director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, warns that a third of the world economy could suffer a recession this year.
The conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia have caused an unprecedented energy crisis. Although inflation in advanced economies, such as that of the United States or the euro area, appears to have peaked, it remains above average, forcing central banks to maintain a course of aggressive price increases. interest rates. That represents higher borrowing costs, and can aggravate the debt crisis in developing countries, as well as poverty.
The annual risk survey published by the WEF on Wednesday (11.01.2023) placed inflation caused by the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the main immediate risk. And he predicted that the food and energy supply crises are likely to persist for the next two years.
The meeting in Davos “will take place in the most complex geopolitical and geoeconomic context in decades,” said WEF President Borge Brende. “The stakes are really high for the global economy, as we must try to prevent a global recession, avoid stagnation, inflation and excessive debt.”
The Davos meeting returns to its traditional winter schedule after two years of pandemic. The meeting was canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19, adopting a digital format, and last year it was moved to May, which caused significant absences due to scheduling problems.
However, this year Davos will host the largest business turnout in its history, with 1,500 business leaders in attendance, including 600 CEOs from some of the world’s largest companies.
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