For the Student — IMF & World Bank Spring Meetings

Ismail Ali Manik

8 min readApr 12, 2018

Plan to update here interesting events, links and publications from the IMF and World Bank Group Spring Meetings.

The Kickoff to the meetings by President Kim of World Bank Group

Rich and Poor: Opportunities and Challenges in an Age of Disruption

2. Amp up your 2018 Spring Meetings experience- see the list of seminars

3. World Economic Outlook, April 2018- Analytical Chapters

4. Globalization Helps Spread Knowledge and Technology Across Borders

5. Fix the Roof While the Window of Opportunity is Open: Three Priorities for the Global Economy

Let me conclude. This generation of policymakers is facing a stark choice:
They can simply copy the policies of the past, which have delivered mixed results — raising living standards substantially, but leaving too many behind.
Or they can paint a new economic landscape — where open trade is fairer and more collaborative; where financial systems are safer and more supportive of economic growth; and where the digital revolution benefits not just the fortunate few but all people.
As the great artist Henri Matisse once said: “Creativity takes courage.”
We certainly need more courage — in the halls of government, in company conference rooms, and in our hearts and minds.

6. Global Financial Stability Report April 2018

7. Belt and Road Initiative: Strategies to Deliver in the Next Phase

This is related to the second challenge — focusing on sound fiscal policies.
The Belt and Road Initiative can provide much-needed infrastructure financing to partner countries.
However, these ventures can also lead to a problematic increase in debt, potentially limiting other spending as debt service rises, and creating balance of payment challenges.
In countries where public debt is already high, careful management of financing terms is critical. This will protect both China and partner governments from entering into agreements that will cause financial difficulties in the future.
Fortunately, we know that China’s leadership is aware of these potential risks — as well as the proven strategies that can help address the challenges.
A good starting point is ensuring transparent decision-making. An overarching framework between the various agencies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative would help provide clarity to all stakeholders.

8. IMF Fiscal Monitor, April 2018, Chapter 2 : Digital Government

In Rwanda, digitally-monitored drones deliver blood supplies to hospitals. In Estonia, it takes five minutes to file taxes and 99 percent of government services are available online. Singapore was the first city to implement electronic road pricing to manage congestion. The world is becoming digital, and reliable, timely, and accurate information is available at the push of a button. Governments are following suit, using digital tools for tax and expenditure policy, public financial management, and public service delivery.

9. Rich and Poor: Opportunities and Challenges in an Age of Disruption

And British Parliament in 1601 passed the Statute of Charitable Uses, the first time when governments were supposed to take care of the poor in any given region.
Around the same time, Islamic leaders endow property to create major educational centers. Shah Abbas — we were just talking with Padideh about this — of Persia, endowed school at the royal mosque, which set a pattern for similar colleges.
And so, there was this tradition of philanthropy. But the point here is that philanthropy, which was our traditional way of thinking about how you tackle the problem of inequality and poverty is not going work anymore.
Let’s look at another example, a very famous one of course is Albert Schweitzer. Now, I always get in trouble when I talk about Albert Schweitzer like this because people, for good reasons, admire him very much. But Albert Schweitzer was part of a different tradition. He was part of the colonialist movement. He was also a missionary. And there was this sense that it was the responsibility of people like Albert Schweitzer to bring civilization to the uncivilized masses. But Albert Schweitzer also portrayed himself as a great physician who was providing care to the poor.
And I’d first heard about this because there was a cardiologist from the hospital that I trained in in Boston who actually, in the 1950s, visited Albert Schweitzer. And when he came back, he wrote a little report saying that he was absolutely appalled at the conditions that he found in Albert Schweitzer’s hospital. He was a cardiologist that specifically looked at rhythm disorders. And he said that so many of the patients there had these things and there were things to be done for the patients but they were not done. A little tiny report, but then it turns out that there was a British journalist named James Cameron who visited Schweitzer in 1953, and here’s what he wrote about the hospital that he found:
“The hospital was a shock. I had been prepared for some unorthodoxies, but not this glaring squalor. The doctor had fenced off all mechanical advance to a degree that seemed both pedantic and appalling. The wards were rude huts, airless and dark, plank beds and wooden pillows, everyone infested with hens and dogs. There was no running water but the rain, no gas, no sewage, no electricity, except, again, in character, for the operating theater and the gramophone.”
Cameron goes on to say, “I said then that the hospital existed for him rather than he for it. It was deliberately archaic and primitive, deliberately part of the jungle around it, a background of his own creation which clearly meant a great deal more philosophically than it did medically.”
Now, part of the criticism here is that what Schweitzer was up to — and he talked about it with great clarity. He talked about it — he was an inspiration to many. He talked about his mission to correct the wrongs that others had instigated in the name of Christianity.
But for 30 years I worked in an organization called Partners in Health, and we tried to do exactly the opposite of what we saw Schweitzer having done. We thought, “Look, this is not about us. It’s about providing the best possible medical care we can out of respect for the fundamental humanity of these others.”

10. Transcript of Managing Director’s Press Briefing, April 19, 2018

You may have heard it — if you have not heard it, you have read it — the IMF forecast growth this year and next year at 3.9 percent, which is more than the 3.7 percent that you may have heard about back in October. It is clearly a pickup in our projection, and we maintain it this year and next. The momentum has been driven by stronger investment and a rebound in trade. It is broad-based, and it involves the US, Europe, Japan, China, as well as many other emerging and developing countries, yet not all.
So overall, the near-term prospect for the global economy continues to be bright. At the same time, while the sun is shining — not today in Washington, but usually — while the sun is shining, we are seeing more clouds accumulating on the horizon than we did back in October. Let me just take you through some of those downside risks as we see them.
Some of you will remember that back in October, we said it is when the sun is shining that you fix the roof. So first thing, have some governments taken measures to fix the roof? Well, some have, but certainly not all; and more needs to be done to sustain this upswing and foster long-term growth.
The second downside risk, global debt is at an all-time high. It stands at $164 trillion, which is 225 percent of GDP, of which the private sector accounts for two-thirds. Public debt in advanced economies is at levels not seen since World War II. And in low-income countries, if recent trends continue, many, not all, will face unsustainable debt burdens.
Third cloud, financial vulnerabilities have increased due to high debt, rising financial market volatility, and elevated asset prices. A sudden tightening of financial conditions could lead to market corrections, unsustainable debt, and capital flow reversals.

11. A Strong Foundation for Greater Impact

The committee reiterated its support for the Bank Group’s twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity, while recognizing that the Bank Group must strengthen its financial capacity to meet the aspirations of its shareholders, mobilize capital at scale, and respond to global development challenges. The committee agreed to a capital increase for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of a package of fundamental reforms that will allow the Bank Group to deliver development results more effectively while becoming more financially sustainable and efficient. It will help the Bank Group continue to lead on global public goods and scale up its support in fragile and conflict-affected situations.
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, in his remarks at the press conference that opened the Spring Meetings, also highlighted the financial strengthening of IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, through an inaugural bond issue that raised $1.5 billion from investors around the world this week. “IDA’s entry to the global capital markets is historic — the latest transformational shift in how we approach development finance,” he said, adding that “IDA will be able to dramatically scale up financing to help countries meet the 2030 development goals, and deliver greater value to shareholders.”

12. Building Human Capital: A Project for the World

Much awaited session featuring World Bank President, Bill Gates and Penny Mordaunt of DIFID is now available now for download.

Bill Gates gave plug (starts from 13th minute) to the Hans Rosling book, Factfulness that came out recently pointing out to some of the successes in public health and related areas. Too bad the moderator Ali Velshi haven’t heard of Hans Rosling.

Hans Rosling’s ‘’Factfulness’ reminds us that the effort to help develop countries has gone very well. The development community has had success, and we can learn from the data that we can do even better- Bill Gates

For the Student — IMF & World Bank Spring Meetings

Written by Ismail Ali Manik