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IMF News, December 8, 2025

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The Center is presented as a hub where "global expertise and local knowledge" come together to strengthen IMF engagement with the Asia and Pacific region.
Purpose: promote cross-fertilization of ideas, enhance appreciation of Asian perspectives within the IMF, bridge IMF headquarters economists and economic scholars in Asia, and serve as a hub to promote policy-relevant research focused on middle income and emerging market economies.
Emphasis on producing "top-quality macroeconomic research to inform and guide good policymaking" and on strengthening policy engagement across the IMF’s 191 member countries.

Three factors identified as powering Asia’s historical growth performance:
- An expanding labor force (now receding).
- Governments stepping out of economic activity to make room for the private sector.
- Reallocation of workers and production from lower-productivity sectors (agriculture) to higher-productivity sectors (manufacturing and services).
Structural change statistic:
- The share of workers employed in agriculture has fallen "from almost 60 percent in 1990 to well below 30 percent today."
Outcome: "a record decline in poverty and a better life for billions."

Overarching goal: help countries navigate transformations to build resilience, preserve stability, and promote growth through policy-relevant research.
Three priority research questions highlighted:

1. How can the business environment be improved to unleash the full potential of the private sector?

Focus on cutting red tape, easing regulatory barriers, and removing outdated regulations; research to inform reform priorities and sequencing.

2. How can we make the best use of new technologies, including in the financial sector?

Need to balance innovation with safeguarding financial stability.
Artificial intelligence: "AI can boost growth by 0.1‒0.8 percentage points per year" (with policy emphasis on ensuring broad-based gains and mitigating labor market dislocations).

3. How can countries maintain trade as an engine of growth amid a shifting global trade landscape?

Importance of reforms that deepen regional integration.
Example estimate: "reducing non-tariff barriers could lift GDP by 1.8 percent in the long run."

Additional research theme: how specific reforms interact, especially given Asia’s "triple transformation"—shifting demographics, a new trade landscape, and the advent of artificial intelligence—and how policies should adapt to their confluence.

Strengthen private sector-led productivity growth through:
- Reforming the business environment: cut red tape, ease regulatory barriers, remove outdated regulations.
- Pursue resource reallocation across sectors to raise productivity.
Manage technological adoption to maximize benefits while protecting stability and workers:
- Strike a balance between allowing innovation and safeguarding financial stability.
- Ensure AI gains are broad-based through appropriate policy measures.
Deepen regional integration and address impediments to trade:
- Identify and reduce non-tariff barriers to unlock potential GDP gains.
Use research to guide reform sequencing and to illuminate interactions among policies under the "triple transformation."

IMF membership: 191 member countries.
Agriculture employment share: "from almost 60 percent in 1990 to well below 30 percent today."
AI growth impact: "AI can boost growth by 0.1‒0.8 percentage points per year."
Potential GDP gain from reducing non-tariff barriers in Asia: "1.8 percent in the long run."
Date of remarks: December 7, 2025.

Remarks by Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF — December 7, 2025.