from the World Economic Forum Davos Agenda:
Today the IMF, European Central Bank, and global economic leaders discussed the future of the economy at the “Global Economic Outlook” session at Davos Agenda 2022.
Inflation, global economic recovery and COVID-19 impacts are discussed.
Please find selected quotes below. View the full session here.
Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank:
“In Europe, we are not seeing inflation spiral out of control. We assume energy prices will stabilize from the middle of 2022, bottlenecks will also stabilize in 2022 and gradually, inflation numbers will decline.”
“When I look at the labor market, we are not experiencing anything like The Great Resignation, and our employment participation numbers are getting very close to the pre-pandemic level.”
“In Europe we are unlikely to face the kind of inflation increases that the U.S. market has faced.”
“More recently, we have learnt the lesson of humility–the ECB, IMF, OECD and others all underestimated the recovery, the employment participation and, obviously, inflation.”
Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF):
“The response to the pandemic crisis has been anything but orthodox— in a highly coordinated manner both central banks and finance authorities have prevented the world falling into yet another great depression.”
“If I were to offer policy makers a new year’s resolution, it would policy flexibility.”
“In low-income countries, 60% are in either debt distress or in danger of debt distress–more than twice as many as in 2015.”
Haruhiko Kuroda (黒田 東彦), Governor, Bank of Japan:
“Japan response to the pandemic has been relatively successful, however, the pandemic has had a significant, negative impact on Japan’s economy.”
“Unlike U.S. or Europe, we have to continue extremely accommodative, easy monetary policy for the time being. We expect the inflation rate in 2022 and 2023 to be around 1 percent still.”
Paulo Guedes, Minister of Economy, Ministry of Economy of Brazil:
“Central banks are sleeping at the wheel–inflation will be a real problem very soon for the western world.”
“More than 3 million new jobs were created in 2021 and the government has assisted 68 million Brazilians with direct income transfers.”
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Finance, Ministry of Finance of Indonesia:
“We see a strong recovery in the Indonesian economy in 2022, and to build on this we are expecting more than 1% of additional GDP growth from a series of recent reforms.”
“Indonesia is the largest economy in the ASEAN region, but it is vulnerable to a dependence on commodities–the emphasis now is on value-added activities.”
About the Davos Agenda 2022
For over 50 years, the World Economic Forum has been the international organization for public-private cooperation. The Davos Agenda 2022 is the focal point at the start of the year for leaders to share their outlook, insights and plans relating to the most urgent global issues. The meeting will provide a platform to accelerate the partnerships needed to tackle shared challenges and shape a more sustainable and inclusive future. Learn more about the program and view sessions live and on demand.