KEY POINTS
- Families around the world still face high prices despite easing inflation, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva says.
- Over the next 5 years, global economic growth is expected to ease to 3.1% from 3.2% in 2024.
- IMF warns of record public debt, to hit 100 percent of global GDP in 2030.
Families around the world are still feeling effects of high prices, even as inflation relaxes, the International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, has told the BBC.
Georgieva spoke of the fragile global economy at the Global Policy Agenda 2024 briefing as part of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, DC.
The inflation rate tumbles slowly leaving families behind
Inflation has begun to slow due to Central Bank actions and improved supply chains, but many families are still having to deal with rising costs of living, Georgieva said. Families are still hurting from high prices but the global economy has held up well, she said.
Slow growth and rising public debt are forecast by IMF
The IMF forecast said global growth will drop to 3.1% in the next five years, from 3.2% this year. Public debt is also forecast to peak at historically high levels and may surge over 100pc of global GDP by 2030.
These risks must be mitigated through policy changes, particularly fiscal consolidation and growth enhancing reforms, Georgieva stressed.
According to Vanguard, transformative changes like climate action, demographic shift, and digital technologies like artificial intelligence will reshape the economic landscape in the future, says the IMF’s Global Policy Agenda 2024.
