Washington DC – IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva raised concerns for the global economy with a reference to the television show, Game of Thrones. "Winter is coming," notes the IMF chief.
"We are dealing with a global economy that appears to be getting worse, not better," noted Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and a UN finance expew who monitors the IMF. "The IMF raised as a primary concern too high debt levels."
Record debt levels across the globe are one of the three major issues shaping the global economy according to Georgieva. Artificial intelligence and high energy prices, in addition to debt, are the primary issues shaping the economy. Georgieva delivered her remarks in Singapore ahead of IMF, G20 and World Bank Annual Meetings that begin next week in Bangkok with world leaders from 191 countries.
“Debt is top on the agenda as we approach the Bangkok meetings,” said LeCompte. "High debts for developing countries also means too high food and fuel prices for all of the world."
Rising interest rates, according to the IMF means debts are rising for countries.
According to Georgieva, the energy price shock has so far been large, but contained and, yet, oil prices remain around $100 per barrel. The cost of energy affects fertilizers, food and key industrial inputs that will put food security at risk.
In a chapter of its flagship World Economic Outlook report the IMF released on Tuesday, it finds that abrupt price spikes in food and basic necessities are a recurring source of crises.
"When the cost of living goes up, we all suffer and the poor suffer the most as food is priced out of reach for too many of us,” shared LeCompte.
Read Kristalina Georgieva's curtain-raiser speech here.