Dear MARIA, In today's edition, we highlight: - July 2025 World Economic Outlook
- How new data standards will transform our understanding of the global economy
- Tech's winner-take-all trap in F&D magazine
- CSOs invited to submit session proposals for 2025 Annual Meetings Civil Society Policy Forum
- Digital payment innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa
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The July 2025 IMF World Economic Outlook says that global growth is projected at 3.0 percent for 2025 and 3.1 percent in 2026, an upward revision from the April 2025 World Economic Outlook. This reflects front-loading ahead of tariffs, lower effective tariff rates, better financial conditions, and fiscal expansion in some major jurisdictions. Global inflation is expected to fall, but US inflation is predicted to stay above target. Downside risks from potentially higher tariffs, elevated uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions persist. Restoring confidence, predictability, and sustainability remains a key policy priority. |
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(Credit: James Mertz/IMF Photo) |
The way we measure the global economy is changing. For the first time in more than 15 years, the System of National Accounts (SNA)—the international standard for economic data—has been updated to reflect today’s digital and interconnected world, write the IMF’s Vladimir Klyuev and James Tebrake in a new blog. The revised SNA better captures the impact of emerging technologies, intangible assets, and global production networks. It also introduces improved approaches to measuring digitalization, crypto assets, financial risks, and sustainability, helping policymakers, businesses, and researchers make better-informed decisions. The update was unanimously approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission and developed through global collaboration, with the IMF playing a leading role. Implementation will help ensure economic data keeps pace with rapid changes in the $114 trillion global economy. |
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Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and ’90s proved an interesting case study for an aspiring economist who had just written his thesis on the hyperinflation and economic chaos in Germany and the Soviet Union in the 1920s. After completing his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and starting a postdoctoral position at Harvard, Simon Johnson found himself working with Poland’s first noncommunist government and studying the emergence of the private sector there and in neighboring countries following the fall of the Iron Curtain. Johnson’s astute study of private enterprise’s successes and failures formed the basis for his enduring research on the role of institutions in economic development, which won him the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics. Johnson has recently turned his attention to how technology is making its mark on today’s economy and the potential impact, of artificial intelligence especially, on the institutions he believes are so crucial for equitable growth. His latest book, with coauthor Daron Acemoglu, Power and Progress, examines the close relationship between technology and prosperity and cautions against allowing too few innovators to control technology’s strategic direction. Johnson, now the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, spoke with F&D’s Bruce Edwards about technology, inequality, and democracy. |
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The Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) has become an integral part of the International Monetary Fund–World Bank Group Spring and Annual Meetings, providing an open space for Civil Society Organizations from all over the world to engage and exchange views with IMF and World Bank staff, their peers, government delegations, and other stakeholders on a wide range of topics. Representatives from civil society are invited to submit their session proposals for the next CSPF (October 14-17, during the 2025 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings). There’s still time left to submit a proposal, but the August 11th deadline is fast approaching! Just complete this form. |
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AUGUST 5, 2025 AT 8 AM EST/2 PM SASTJoin us for a conversation between Bo Li, IMF Deputy Managing Director, Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the IMF African Department, and Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. |
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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. The Weekend Read Will Return in September. |
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| | Editor | IMF Weekend Read |
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This email was sent to politikimx@gmail.com on behalf of: International Monetary Fund 1900 Pennsylvania Ave NW · Washington, DC · 20431 |
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