{ "title": "The 26th Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference", "publication": "IMF News, November 6, 2025", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference", "overlayPath": "/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference/index.md", "summary": "Opening Remarks by IMF First Deputy Managing Director, Dan Katz", "publishDate": "2025-11-06", "sections": [ { "heading": "Overview", "content": "- Event: 26th Annual Research Conference\n- Speech: Opening Remarks by IMF First Deputy Managing Director, Dan Katz\n- Date: November 6, 2025\n- Purpose: Introduce the conference theme “The Evolving Landscape of Global Trade and Financial Integration” and frame key questions for research and policy discussion." }, { "heading": "Trade: questions and implications", "content": "- Framing:\n - Trade has been a cornerstone of economic development and the rise in global living standards following World War II and the establishment of the Bretton Woods Institutions.\n - Current transformations driven by geopolitics, new technologies, and rethinking of assumptions about international economic integration.\n- Core questions posed:\n - When state interventions inhibit economic flexibility and persistently distort comparative advantages, do the gains from trade still hold?\n - Can trade remain a driver of sustainable and balanced growth among countries with fundamentally different models for state influence on the economy?\n - How should economists evaluate trade-offs involved in export controls on advanced technologies like leading edge semiconductors, especially given AI’s potential role in productivity growth?\n - Will increasing use of export controls on legacy inputs (e.g., rare earth magnets) reshape global trade and production more than changes in tariff levels?\n- Policy-relevant observations:\n - Tariffs change relative prices and tend to be less distortionary than non-tariff barriers, including quantity interventions like export controls.\n - Export controls that cut off critical inputs risk production shutdowns that could cascade across supply chains and ripple through the economy and the financial system." }, { "heading": "Global imbalances and capital flows", "content": "- Context and recent development:\n - The increase in excess imbalances in 2024 was the largest in a decade.\n - Historical reference to the global savings glut “twenty years ago,” when current account deficits widened while fiscal deficits did not.\n- Core questions posed:\n - To what extent do domestic macroeconomic imbalances in savings and investment drive external imbalances, and when are domestic actions sufficient to reduce external imbalances?\n - Could causation run both ways, with external imbalances influencing domestic imbalances that are themselves products of other countries’ domestic policies?\n - What should countries do if domestic measures are insufficient to rebalance and other countries are unwilling to address domestic imbalances that cause spillovers?\n - Are capital flows to deficit countries slowing the adjustments needed to address excessive imbalances?\n - How concerned should policymakers be about systemic risks from stock imbalances—net foreign asset positions deviating significantly from sustainable or desirable levels—even if flow imbalances are addressed?\n- Policy recommendations implied for discussion:\n - Progress toward investment expansion in Germany and fiscal consolidations in the United Kingdom and the United States as examples of domestic actions that could reduce external imbalances.\n - Consideration of both flow and stock dimensions of external positions in assessing systemic risk." }, { "heading": "Geopolitical fragmentation and economic integration", "content": "- Observations:\n - Supply chains are reordering and new trading blocs are emerging; regionalization appears to be on the rise.\n - More stable and harmonious regional relations can be intertwined with closer economic integration.\n- Core questions posed:\n - Could deeper integration paradoxically create distortions, disruptions, and vulnerabilities that negatively impact geopolitical stability?\n - To what extent is within-country integration—especially in larger economies with significant internal frictions—a potentially more attractive pathway?\n - Should policymakers differentiate between types of specialization; are there economic activities that a successful modern economy cannot outsource?\n - Could sectoral imbalances, even absent excessive aggregate imbalances, lead to resource misallocation and exacerbate security concerns?\n- Policy implications:\n - The degree of security, economic, and political compatibility across neighbors matters for the durability and benefits of integration.\n - Policymakers need to weigh trade-offs between the benefits of integration and potential geopolitical or sectoral vulnerabilities." }, { "heading": "Conference focus and agenda signals", "content": "- Research priorities highlighted:\n - Cutting edge research on trade dynamics, global value chains, capital flows, and policy tradeoffs.\n - A modern take on financial repression in the Mundell‑Fleming Lecture.\n - A Policy Panel to bring practitioners and academics together to weigh trade‑offs and political realities.\n- Call to action:\n - Participants are encouraged to challenge speakers and one another; the best insights emerge from dialogue across disciplines and perspectives.\n - The Opening Remarks invite follow-on sessions starting with Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti’s first session, “Tariffs and Global Imbalances.”\n\nOpening Remarks by Dan Katz, First Deputy Managing Director, November 6, 2025.\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Dan Katz, First Deputy Managing Director\n- United States and the IMF\n- Speeches\n- PRESS CENTER\n- IMF’s 26th Annual Research Conference\n- https://www.imf.org/en/home\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference/bundle-manifest.json)", "Published: November 6, 2025", "Event: 26th Annual Research Conference", "Speech: Opening Remarks by IMF First Deputy Managing Director, Dan Katz", "Date: November 6, 2025", "Purpose: Introduce the conference theme “The Evolving Landscape of Global Trade and Financial Integration” and frame key questions for research and policy discussion.", "Framing:", "Core questions posed:", "Policy-relevant observations:", "Context and recent development:", "Core questions posed:", "Policy recommendations implied for discussion:", "Observations:", "Core questions posed:", "Policy implications:", "Research priorities highlighted:", "Call to action:", "[Dan Katz, First Deputy Managing Director](https://www.imf.org/en/about/senior-officials/bios/dan-katz)", "[United States and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/USA/index.htm)", "[Speeches](https://www.imf.org/en/news/searchnews)", "[PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)", "[IMF’s 26th Annual Research Conference](https://www.imf.org/en/news/seminars/conferences/2025/11/06/2025-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference)", "[https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)" ], "alternates": { "markdown": "/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference/index.md", "json": "/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference/index.json", "bundleManifest": "/en/news/articles/2025/11/06/sp-opening-remarks-dan-katz-26th-jacques-polak-annual-research-conference/bundle-manifest.json" }, "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-26T04:14:23.717Z" }