Ahead of the 2026 Annual Meetings Kristalina Georgieva delivers a Curtain Raiser speech on the outlook for the global economy and policy priorities.
The 2026 Spring Meetings will be held from Monday, April 13, through Saturday, April 18, at the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC.
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Surging interest rates on dollar- and euro-denominated loans in recent years have prompted countries to turn to domestic markets for their borrowing needs. Amadou Sy heads the IMF Regional Studies division. In this podcast, he says there are benefits to issuing debt in local markets and in local currency.
The most prosperous of civilizations were the most open. The Romans, for example, expanded their empire by integrating the populations they conquered, creating a melting pot of new ideas. Johan Norberg’s latest book, Peak Human, examines the rise and fall of seven golden age civilizations. In this podcast, he says that if openness to learning and trade are what great societies make, building walls to protect their dominance often sparks their demise.
The idea of European integration through a single market was to capitalize on the EU as a whole. However, EU member states now appear reticent to pool sovereignty to the degree required to counter the geopolitical challenges of today’s world. Enrico Letta is President of the Jacques Delors Institute and a champion of Delors’ vision of creating a fully integrated European economic space. Letta says the adaptation of the single market should include all sectors rather than a select few and that fragmentation is holding Europe back.
Strengthening innovation could help boost productivity growth by 40 percent, equal to adding the output of the country’s fourth-largest state economy
Knocking down internal trade barriers could boost output in Canada by 7 perc
Prudent fiscal policy, vigilant financial oversight, and deeper labor and investment reforms can keep Saudi Arabia’s transformation on track
