Dear MARIA,

In today's edition, we highlight:

Fostering core government bond market resilience
Making Europe's Multiannual Financial Framework fit for purpose
The value of vocation in F&D magazine
Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour on navigating uncertainty, and more

FINANCIAL SECTOR STABILITY

Fostering Core Government Bond Market Resilience

(Credit:Torsten Asmus by Getty Images)

The smooth functioning of government bond markets is important for the safety and soundness of broader capital markets, especially amid heightened financial market volatility. Bond markets recently adjusted sharply to an abrupt re-assessment of the global macroeconomic environment and elevated trade policy uncertainty, write the IMF’s Tobias Adrian, Kleopatra Nikolaou, and Jason Wu in a new blog.

Government bond market functioning demonstrated resilience despite very high volatility, and its continued stability remains essential for the financial system, as shown in the latest Global Financial Stability Report, which also assesses cross-country vulnerabilities in other financial sectors and markets.

Policymakers should broaden central clearing and monitor market-making, including by nonbank financial institutions, while dealers must continue to build resilience, the authors note.

Read the Blog

EUROPE

Making Europe's Multiannual Financial Framework Fit for Purpose

(Credit: IMF Photo/Cory Hancock)

Europe stands at a transformative crossroads. The global environment is increasingly complex, and structural changes are reshaping the foundations of European economies. The challenges are significant: strengthening productivity and resilience amid demographic aging and rising geopolitical and trade tensions while increasing defense spending in a fiscally sustainable way and enhancing energy security and accelerating the clean energy transition, said the IMF’s Alfred Kammer in opening remarks at the Annual EU Budget Conference.

“This is an extraordinary combination of challenges, and it will take an extraordinary effort to meet them,” said Kammer. “The key is to combine (i) a determined push to complete the single market with (ii) national reforms to allow Europe’s firms to grow to scale…And (iii) we will need the EU budget to amplify these efforts by enabling the joint provision of European public goods and incentivizing national reforms.”

Europe's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is the EU's long-term budget, outlining how much the EU can spend over a multi-year period on various policies and programs. The MFF has proven its strategic importance time and again, Kammer noted. However, to remain fit for purpose, the upcoming MFF must undergo a comprehensive overhaul. Recommendations fall into three areas: first, a more ambitious budget with a stronger focus on European public goods is needed; second, the MFF must be more performance-based, streamlined, and adaptable; and third, the financing framework of the budget must be strengthened.

Kammer also delivered remarks this week on Europe’s path to growth and resilience at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels.

Read the Speech

F&D MAGAZINE

The Value of Vocation

(Credit: Getty Images/picture alliance)

Folorunso Alakija can thank a Pitman’s secretarial studies diploma for setting her on the path to her position as one of Africa’s richest women. The training led to a job as an assistant to executives and bankers before she shifted gears to study fashion design and started her own brand. She then branched out into real estate and oil exploration, among other things, amassing an estimated $1.8 billion fortune, according to Forbes.

Alakija’s trajectory shows how a university degree is not always the key to success, Maria Petrakis writes in F&D magazine. Vocational training is gaining recognition as a viable alternative to a college education: Not all professions demand university studies to flourish.

Switzerland, Germany, and Finland have a long history of successfully incorporating vocational training and support in preparing students for the workforce. From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, many Big Tech leaders dropped out of college and went for hands-on experience in building their businesses.

Read the Article

Malaysia is one of Southeast Asia's strongest economies and has recently been lauded for its ability to keep inflation in check. But Malaysia is not immune to the rising global trade tensions and uncertainty of late. In this podcast, IMF Asia and Pacific Department head Krishna Srinivasan sits down with Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour to discuss the intricacies of central bank operations amid this changing landscape. The conversation occurred in the Governor Talks series held during the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings.

Watch the webcast of the event.

Listen to the Podcast

Weekly Roundup

STAFF PAPER

Nowcasting Global Trade from Space

A new IMF Working Paper presents a comprehensive approach for tracking global trade in real time, using satellite data on 90,000 ships. This provides a timely indicator of global trade as shipping accounts for about 80 percent of worldwide merchandise trade by volume. This new approach mimics key features of the way statisticians compile trade data—measuring the customs value of imported and exported goods first, forming import and export price deflators, and then estimating import and export volumes.

Thank you again very much for your interest in the Weekend Read! Be sure to let us know what issues and trends we should have on our radar.