Blogs

2023

June 5, 2023

Central Banks Can Fend Off Financial Turmoil and Still Fight Inflation

But there are trade-offs between price and financial stability during times of stress, especially when inflation is high.

2022

October 14, 2022

How Countries Should Respond to the Strong Dollar

Policy responses to currency depreciation pressures should focus on the drivers of the exchange-rate moves and signs of market disruptions

May 22, 2022

Why We Must Resist Geoeconomic Fragmentation—And How

Only international cooperation can address urgent global issues such as fixing shortages of food and other products, eliminating barriers to growth, and saving our climate.

March 30, 2022

Why the IMF is Updating its View on Capital Flows

In some circumstances, countries should have the option of pre-emptively curbing debt inflows to safeguard macroeconomic and financial stability.

January 25, 2022

A Disrupted Global Recovery

Growth slows as economies grapple with supply disruptions, higher inflation, record debt and persistent uncertainty.

2021

December 3, 2021

Addressing Inflation Pressures Amid an Enduring Pandemic

With inflationary pressures intensifying and Omicron generating new uncertainties, monetary policymakers are facing new and challenging tradeoffs.

October 12, 2021

A Hobbled Recovery Along Entrenched Fault Lines

The global recovery continues amid increasing uncertainty, more complex policy trade-offs.

August 10, 2021

Coming Together

Differences in vaccine access and the ability to deploy policy support are creating a growing divergence between advanced economies from many emerging market and developing economies.

July 27, 2021

Drawing Further Apart: Widening Gaps in the Global Recovery

The global economic recovery continues, but with a widening gap between advanced economies and many emerging market and developing economies.

May 21, 2021

A Proposal to End the COVID-19 Pandemic

Many countries have stepped up in the global fight against the pandemic, as have institutions such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank, Gavi (the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), the African Union, and others.

April 6, 2021

Managing Divergent Recoveries

It is one year into the COVID-19 pandemic and the global community still confronts extreme social and economic strain as the human toll rises and millions remain unemployed. Yet, even with high uncertainty about the path of the pandemic, a way out of this health and economic crisis is increasingly visible. Thanks to the ingenuity of the scientific community hundreds of millions of people are being vaccinated and this is expected to power recoveries in many countries later this year. Economies also continue to adapt to new ways of working despite reduced mobility, leading to a stronger-than-anticipated rebound across regions. Additional fiscal support in large economies, particularly the United States, has further improved the outlook.

February 19, 2021

Structural Factors and Central Bank Credibility Limit Inflation Risks

After ending last year with unexpectedly strong vaccine success and hope that the pandemic and economic distress it caused would recede, we woke up to the reality of new virus variants and the unpredictable, winding road that it can lead the world down.

January 26, 2021

A Race Between Vaccines and the Virus as Recoveries Diverge

In just three months since we released our last forecast in October, recorded COVID-19 deaths have doubled to over 2 million, as new waves have lifted infections past previous peaks in many countries.

2020

December 9, 2020

Navigating Capital Flows—An Integrated Approach

October 13, 2020

A Long, Uneven and Uncertain Ascent

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread with over 1 million lives tragically lost so far. Living with the novel coronavirus has been a challenge like no other, but the world is adapting.

July 20, 2020

Dominant Currencies and the Limits of Exchange Rate Flexibility

Faced with an unprecedented shock of collapsing global demand and commodity prices, capital outflows, major supply chain disruptions and a generalized drop in global trade, many emerging markets and developing economies’ (EMDEs) currencies have weakened sharply. Will these currency movements support the recovery of these economies?

July 13, 2020

Toward an Integrated Policy Framework for Open Economies

While capital mobility provides many benefits, capital flows to emerging market and developing economies are often volatile and depend critically on global financial conditions.

July 10, 2020

Fiscal Policies for a Transformed World

Policymakers should tackle the rising poverty and inequality, as well as the structural weaknesses exposed by the crisis to better prepare for future shocks.

June 24, 2020

Reopening from the Great Lockdown: Uneven and Uncertain Recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed economies into a Great Lockdown, which helped contain the virus and save lives, but also triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression.

June 16, 2020

The Great Lockdown through a Global Lens

The Great Lockdown is expected to play out in three phases, first as countries enter the lockdown, then as they exit, and finally as they escape the lockdown when there is a medical solution to the pandemic.

April 14, 2020

The Great Lockdown: Worst Economic Downturn Since the Great Depression

The world has changed dramatically in the three months since our last update of the World Economic Outlook in January. A rare disaster, a coronavirus pandemic, has resulted in a tragically large number of human lives being lost.

April 6, 2020

An Early View of the Economic Impact of the Pandemic in 5 Charts

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the world into a recession. For 2020 it will be worse than the global financial crisis. The economic damage is mounting across all countries, tracking the sharp rise in new infections and containment measures put in place by governments.

March 9, 2020

Limiting the Economic Fallout of the Coronavirus with Large Targeted Policies

This health crisis will have a significant economic fallout, reflecting shocks to supply and demand different from past crises.

January 20, 2020

Tentative Stabilization, Sluggish Recovery?

In the October World Economic Outlook, we described the global economy as in a synchronized slowdown, with escalating downside risks that could further derail growth. Since then, some risks have partially receded with the announcement of a US-China Phase I trade deal and lower likelihood of a no-deal Brexit. Monetary policy has continued to support growth and buoyant financial conditions. With these developments, there are now tentative signs that global growth may be stabilizing, though at subdued levels.

2019

December 18, 2019