IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on October 17 that the Annual Meetings in Bangkok were marked by both optimism and worry. Optimism stemmed from the resilience of the global economy, the promise of AI and Asia’s dynamism, while AI, inflation, high debt, wars and climate risks were sources of concern. The IMF warned that high debt and spiking bond yields are tightening financial conditions just as central banks need to bring inflation down, likely through higher interest rates. Global energy prices have spiked since late February, when the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran, hitting low-income oil-importing countries hardest. Georgieva said inflation is like a tax on the poor and noted that debt repayments as a share of government revenue for low-income countries rose from eight to 14 percent.
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