Finance ministers debate debt and growth at IMF forum

Finance ministers and central bank heads are meeting this week in Bangkok for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, against a backdrop of an energy shock, pressure from public debt and the boom in artificial intelligence, according to Banca y Negocios.

According to the IMF, the acceleration of artificial intelligence and the enormous investment it generates are allowing the world economy to sustain growth of 3%, although the boom remains highly uneven across regions. In this context, World Bank President Ajay Banga said developing countries should prioritize small-scale applications in areas such as health, education and agriculture delivered through smartphones, because they lack the computing power and electricity needed to compete with giant data centers.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg Línea reported that Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo arrived in Thailand to take part in the meetings and expects to meet IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva amid negotiations over the third review of the financing program. In parallel, DW reported that countries such as Finland face mounting fiscal burdens compounded by the war in Europe, while France 24 highlighted the award of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford for their research on the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization.

Finally, Kevin P. Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, warned in the original report that the poorest states are struggling with the effects of the war in Iran, rising interest rates in the West and the climate crisis, aggravated by the El Niño phenomenon.