The 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund

After years of successive crises: COVID, Russia's War in Ukraine, inflation and soaring cost of living, the Fund’s membership convened in Washington DC for the 2023 World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings. With a record of over 8,700 in-person participants attending over 35 ministerial meetings and 41 public events, the gathering signaled a return to the dynamism of our pre-pandemic Meetings.?

And we came together against the backdrop of an elusive recovery, sticky inflation, and a potentially rocky road ahead. ?

Three priorities -- identified in my curtain raiser speech -- to improve our prospects for growth were at the top of this Spring Meeting's agenda: Firstly, fight inflation and safeguard financial stability; secondly, improve medium-term prospects for growth, and finally, reduce global disparities.?

I expanded on global disparities during my exchange with the President of the World Bank, David Malpass , when I highlighted not only the disparities in growth rates, but the weakening ties between us. Sadly, fragmentation is deepening, and IMF staff estimate it could equal up to 7% of global GDP.?

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As I said during the Global Debate , while the world economy has proved remarkably resilient in the face of repeated shocks, geopolitical tensions threaten global growth. And fragmentation will cost us all, but it will hit the vulnerable people and countries the hardest and would set them back from their march towards convergence.

That is why I used the launch of the Global Policy Agenda – which lays out the IMF’s policy priorities—to make a particular plea for solidarity with our most vulnerable members.? I am proud that since the start of the pandemic, the IMF has provided $300 billion in new financing, we have temporarily increased the amount members can borrow and we have new tools and review the existing ones to meet new challenges. ?

Our latest flagships—the World Economic Outlook , Global Financial Stability Report and Fiscal Monitor —all delivered our messages warning of sticky inflation, rapidly increasing debt, and fragilities in the financial system.?

Given soaring?debt levels, I was delighted to confirm at the International Monetary and Finance Committee press conference and our Annual Meetings Press conference , that the membership had had a constructive engagement on the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable -- conveyed with the World Bank and India as Chair of G20 -- and further contributions to two of our key lending instruments.?

I also had the opportunity to highlight the plight of fragile and conflict-affected countries at the G7plus meeting whose members are at risk of falling behind amid these growing challenges. With our partners, the IMF is helping them build stable and resilient economies, including through the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.?

Meanwhile, at the high-Level Roundtable Discussion on Low-Income Countries’ Challenges and Concessional Financing, I made an urgent call for more wealthy members?to step up debt relief efforts by closing the subsidy gap of $1.6 billion and the load resource gap of $4.7 billion.?And this call was heard.

As we confront myriad?economic challenges,?parliamentarians play a key role in formulating a response by enacting legislation for a resilient recovery. So, I was delighted to be able to engage with the Parliamentary Forum.?

As part of a search for solutions to global challenges, participants at the Meetings heard an unusual take at the IMF Inspired event when Gillian Tett of the Financial Times drew on her training and brought an anthropological lens to public policy challenges in finance, economic and politics.?

At another event, I and Melinda French Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;?Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited and Dan Schulman, President, and CEO of PayPal, explored the potential of digital infrastructure to enhance financial inclusion.?

The Spring Meetings reflect the IMF’s role as a global venue for multilateral dialogue. Personally, it offers the opportunity for valuable encounters, however brief, with leaders and top officials including US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, HRH Queen Máxima, and environmentalist Mayor Michael Bloomberg.?

I also had exchanges with regional groups including those from Africa, the Americas, G24, and MENAP, among others. In all, I held close to thirty formal bilateral meetings, and countless pull asides.

Together with the World Bank, we also held the third Ministerial Roundtable Discussion for Support to Ukraine where we heard from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and I highlighted a recently approved program under the Extended Fund Facility worth a total of $15.6 billion. Ukraine has earned the strong international support it has received, and the IMF is proud to be part of this.?

The Meetings also brought together representatives of international private institutions, philanthropies, and?governments, and I co-chaired -- with Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President-Designate and Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Co-Chair of the GFANZ-- the discussions to identify ways to urgently scale up finance for climate action .?

With the Spring Meetings behind us, we now look forward to Marrakech, host to the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in October. Before then, there will be plenty to do. There may be new surprises in our fast-moving, shock prone world., and the challenges can often seem overwhelming, but then I remind myself of the words of Nelson Mandela, “Impossible, until it is done.”?

Spring Meetings Updates?

Day 1: April 10, 2023

Day 2: April 11, 2023

Day 3: April 12, 2023

Day 4: April 13, 2023

Day 5: April 14, 2023