Debate on the Global Economy: Addressing the Low Growth-High Debt Conundrum

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IMF SEMINAR EVENT

DATE: October 24, 2024

DAY: Thursday

2:45 PM - 3:45 PM

LOCATION: IMF HQ1 Atrium (HQ1-1-700)

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Overview

The global economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of numerous shocks, and a smooth landing now seems within reach. Yet, medium-term growth prospects remain the weakest in decades amid persistent structural headwinds, such as aging populations and weak productivity. While domestic policy priorities vary across countries, the overarching goal is clear: to revive improvements in living standards and ensure economies—and people—thrive amid the structural shifts brought by the green transition and rapid technological change—both of which present opportunities and challenges.

However, policymakers face immense hurdles in crafting—and implementing—the policies needed to support structural transformations. Policy choices are becoming increasingly difficult (how to rebuild depleted fiscal buffers and reduce debt without unduly harming growth) at a time when the political economy environment is becoming more fraught amid fragmentation and growing social strains. The conversation will explore these challenges, the policy options to overcome them, and the vital need to build the social support to implement and sustain critical reforms.

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Debate on the Global Economy: Addressing the Low Growth-High Debt Conundrum

Speakers

Panelist: Kristalina Georgieva

Kristalina Georgieva is the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She is the first person from an emerging market economy to lead the IMF since its inception in 1944. Before joining the Fund, Ms. Georgieva was Chief Executive Officer of the World Bank and also served as Interim President for a time. Previously, she served at the European Commission as Vice President for Budget and Human Resources – and as Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. She was named “European of the Year” and “Commissioner of the Year” by European Voice for her leadership in the European Union’s humanitarian response to crises.

Panelist: Laura Alfaro

Laura Alfaro is the Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She was Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy in Costa Rica from 2010-2012. She is Co-Editor of the Journal of International Economics and World Bank Research Observer, Vice-President of LACEA; Faculty Research Associate in CEPR and NBER, and co-chair of NBER’s Economics of Supply Chains. Professor Alfaro has authored multiple articles on international economics, capital flows, FDI, sovereign debt, and trade. Laura Alfaro earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where she received the Dissertation Fellowship award. She received a B. A in economics from the Universidad de Costa Rica and a 'Licenciatura' from the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile.

Panelist: Vera Daves de Sousa

Vera Esperança dos Santos Daves de Sousa, was born in Luanda and has a degree in Economics from the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN). She is the first woman to rise to the post of Minister of Finance in Angola. Prior to her appointment she was Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury.

Minister Daves de Sousa has a Banking Techniques and Practices qualification from the Institute for Banking Training in Portugal, and a Derivatives and Bond Markets qualification from ICAP. She worked as Finance Technician at Sonangol ESSA, Director of the Products and Research departments at Banco Privado Atlântico, lecturer in Financial Markets at the Executive MBA promoted by the Catholic Business School Alliance, and lecturer of Public Finance and Economic Integration at UCAN - Faculty of Economics. From 2014 to 2016 she worked as Executive Director of the Capital Market Commission, and from September 2016 to October 2017, she worked as Chairman of the Capital Market Commission in Angola.

Vera Daves de Sousa also played the role of Economic commentator in various media. She was the co-author of a book on Public Finance. In April of 2022 she has successfully completed the ODDO BHF’s Female Leadership Master-Class, the training included 8 modules, designed and conducted by the SMART Leadership Institute.

Panelist: Klaas Knot

Klaas Knot has been President of De Nederlandsche Bank since 1 July 2011 and has served as Chair of the Financial Stability Board since 2 December 2021. He is also a member of the Governing Council and the General Council of the European Central Bank, member of the European Systemic Risk Board, member of the International Monetary Fund's Board of Governors and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements.

Klaas holds several secondary positions. Since 2005, he has been professor of economics of central banking at the University of Groningen, and since 2015 he has also been honorary professor of monetary stability at the Economics and Business Department of the University of Amsterdam. Klaas has published a variety of articles in leading Dutch and international journals in the fields of monetary and financial economics. He is also a member of the Group of Thirty, a global body comprised of economic and financial leaders from the public and private sectors and academia.

Panelist: Jean Pisani-Ferry

Jean Pisani-Ferry is a Senior Fellow with Bruegel, the European think tank, and the Peterson Institute (Washington DC). He teaches at Sciences Po (Paris). He serves as non-executive chair of I4CE, the French institute for climate economics. He is a Distinguished Fellow of CEPR. 

His current research focuses on the economic impact of climate action, on European economic policy issues, and on international collective action.

Pisani-Ferry has served as Commissioner-General of France Stratégie, the ideas lab of the French government. He was from 2005 to 2013 the Founding Director of Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic think tank.

His latest books are The Green Frontier, Peterson Institute 2024 (co-edited with Adam Posen) and New World, New Rules (with George Papaconstantinou, Agenda Publishing and Columbia University Press, 2024).

Moderator: Martin Wolf

Martin Wolf is Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 for services to financial journalism. Mr Wolf won the Overseas Press Club of America’s prize for “best commentary on international news in any medium” for 2013 and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gerald Loeb Awards. He was a member of the UK’s Independent Commission on Banking in 2010-11 His most recent publication is The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (London and New York: Allen Lane, 2023).

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