IMF Publications

Geo-Economic Fragmentation and the Future of Multilateralism

After several decades of increasing global economic integration, the world is facing the risk of policy-driven geoeconomic fragmentation (GEF). This note explores the ramifications. It identifies multiple channels through which the benefits of globalization were earlier transmitted, and along which, conversely, the costs of GEF are likely to fall, including trade, migration, capital flows, technology diffusion and the provision of global public goods.

Accelerating Innovation and Digitalization in Asia to Boost Productivity

Asia has risen to become an innovation powerhouse, contributing to more than half of world patents. The rise of Asia as an innovation hub has been driven by a few frontier countries that have experienced a sharp increase in digital and computer-related patents, supported by solid R&D spending and a large share of researchers in the labor force.

South Asia's Path to Resilient Growth

South Asia’s Path to Sustainable and Inclusive Growth highlights the remarkable development progress in South Asia and how the region can advance in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Steps include a renewed push toward greater trade and financial openness, while responding proactively to the distributional impact and dislocation associated with this structural transformation.

The Managing Director’s Update on the FY 2023 Work Program of the Executive Board

The membership is facing significant challenges, including high inflation, rising food and energy insecurity, elevated debt levels, tightening financial conditions, volatile capital flows and exchange rates, and intensifying geopolitical fragmentation. To this end, the Executive Board Work Program focuses on policy responses and bilateral and multilateral advice to stabilize the global economy and build resilience, critical financial assistance to those countries most affected by these shocks, and capacity development support to help implement policy advice.

IMF Board Endorses Implementation Plan in Response to Institutional Safeguards Review

The Implementation Plan sets out a comprehensive package of policy and process reforms that seek to better support Fund staff in their work and to modernize our working environment so that the Fund can serve its member countries even better. These measures are anchored on four focal areas: Data and Analytical Integrity, Leadership, Building Trust and Increasing Transparency in the Dispute Resolution and Integrity framework, and Strengthening the Dispute Resolution System and its processes.

The Scramble for Energy

Finance and Development, December 2022

A few years ago, when energy was cheaper and more plentiful, the world’s focus was on curbing fossil-fuel use to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. Today, priorities have shifted amid supply threats and price increases since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this issue, leading energy policy experts look at where the clean energy transition stands amid geopolitical tensions.