Key takeaways from the IMF/World Bank meetings

Overshadowed by fresh Middle East violence and hosted by a country still recovering from an earthquake, the week-long annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank wrapped up on Saturday. Discussions in the Moroccan city of Marrakech ranged from the prospects for a world economy weighed down by debt, inflation and conflict to the growing wealth gap between rich and poor countries and floundering efforts to tackle climate change. The new IMF outlook – signed off before the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas – sees global economic growth slowing from 3.5% last year to 3% this year and 2.9% next year, a 0.1% point downgrade from a previous 2024 estimate.