Most countries have infrastructure and governance structures that allow the private sector to take advantage of new technologies to innovate and improve payment and financial services. But at the international level, it’s a different story. Cross-border payments are as slow, expensive, and risky as ever. IMF Financial Counsellor, Tobias Adrian, and coauthors published some new research on creating a Multi-Currency Exchange and Contracting Platform that would effectively transform the cross-border payment system. In this podcast, Adrian says payments are the foundation for the entire monetary and financial system, and new technologies can help get global payments right.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3D1RKJ7 Read the research at IMF.org

Tobias Adrian: Cross-Border Payments for the 21st Century

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Sub-Saharan Africa is slowly emerging from four turbulent years with higher growth expected for nearly two thirds of countries in the region. But while inflation has almost halved and debt has broadly stabilized, economies are still grappling with financing shortages and impending debt repayments. Wenjie Chen is deputy head of the team that publishes the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. In this podcast, she says the surging global demand for critical minerals key to renewable energy systems could help the region overcome the ongoing funding squeeze.    Transcript: https://bit.ly/3WbU6iT  Read the full report at IMF.org

Wenjie Chen on Sub-Saharan Africa’s Latest Outlook

As inflation slowly subsides and optimism pervades financial markets, the latest Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) warns of potential setbacks. Fabio Natalucci and Jason Wu head the GFSR team. In this podcast, they discuss risks associated with debt and the private credit market, struggling real estate sectors in China and the US, cybersecurity, and a host of other risks to the much anticipated soft landing.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/4axvy8z

Global Financial Stability: Fragilities Along Disinflation’s Last Mile

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva kicks off the 2024 IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings from the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, with her customary curtain raiser speech. Go to IMF.org to follow the Spring Meetings and find all the IMF flagship reports, including the World Economic Outlook, the Global Financial Stability Report, and the Fiscal Monitor. Webcast and transcript: https://bit.ly/4aRkmDg

Kristalina Georgieva: The 2020s: Turbulent, Tepid or Transformational?

Even optimal economic policies create winners and losers, and that’s where politics steps in. Trade liberalization is an example of a policy that can make a country better off as a whole, but what happens to workers who lose out to cheaper goods? Jeffry Frieden says while politics is often messy, it’s how society puts a value on things economists can’t measure. Frieden is a Professor of Government at Harvard University.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/4cU34qZ Read A Place for Politics at IMF.org/fandd

Jeffry Frieden: How Politics and Economics Interact

For decades, the standard labor market model has been ruled by supply and demand, but a younger generation of labor economists is questioning that approach. Suresh Naidu is a Professor of Economics and International Public Affairs at Columbia University. He says while the supply and demand model is not wrong, it only tells part of the story. In this podcast, Naidu and journalist Rhoda Metcalfe discuss why today’s labor market model sometimes fails to reflect the real world.   Transcript: https://bit.ly/4aHBqvz 

Tobias Adrian: Cross-Border Payments for the 21st Century

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